HÀ NỘI – Despite an order issued by the Hà Nội People’s Committee two months ago to tear down all illegal billboards in the capital, not only have they not been removed - their number has increased.

At the end of June, an inspection team was send to check 155 billboards in 13 city districts.

Committee Chairman Nguyễn Đức Chung instructed that the billboards be taken down, including their frame and post.

But in a conference held last Saturday, deputy director of the Hà Nội Department of Culture and Information, Trương Minh Tiến, reported that the number of illegal billboards had grown to 200.

For instance, he said, Cầu Giấy District used to have 23 illegal billboards, and now two more have been put up in the Big C Supermarket on Trần Duy Hưng Street.

Before June this year, Phúc Thọ District did not have any illegal billboards, but by the beginning of this month, one had appeared.

A survey by a Kinh tế đô thị (Economics and Urban) newspaper correspondent showed that only a few districts had started to destroy illegal billboards.

Sóc Sơn District, which has the biggest number, did not pull down a single one. Thanh Xuân, Phú Giang, Mai Đình and Phú Cường communes have 43 such billboards.

Đống Đa District also has five - at the Kim Liên parking lot and at No 22 Đông Tác Street.

Deputy chairman of the Đống Đa District People’s Committee, Phan Hồng Việt, said the district was preparing a plan to ask enterprises to destroy their illegal billboards themselves and if they did not do so, the district authorities would take measures against them.

Many other districts are waiting for a meeting with the municipal inspection team to discuss problems related to the billboard destruction. – VNS