The Hindu Editorial Analysis : 9th June 2023

09/06/2023

Table of Contents

The Hindu Editorial Analysis

The Importance of Reading The Hindu Editorial: Reading The Hindu newspaper has several benefits, including improving reading skills, facilitating comprehension, staying informed of current events, enhancing essay writing, and more. For individuals aiming for a career in banking, reading editorials is crucial for vocabulary building. In this article, we will examine today’s editorials, provide practice questions, and highlight important vocabulary words.

Deadly.

Incidents of giant outdoor billboards crashing and becoming death traps are no longer an exception in urban environments.
Tragedies such as the deaths of three workers in Coimbatore last week, after they were crushed by the falling steel frames of a hoarding under replacement, are no rarity.
Authorities lost no time in declaring that the billboard was illegal, offering no explanation on how it stood there. Ironically, it was in April that the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies Rules 2023 were notified, with terms for the licensing of hoardings, banners and placards.
Amid concerns that billboards would mushroom in cities, the Minister for Municipal Administration had explicitly said the rules were notified to ensure that unauthorized billboards are not allowed.
Reports from at least two decades show the failure of many municipal corporations in curbing unlicensed hoardings. Occasional corrective actions have most often been the result of the intervention of the judiciary or triggered by fatal accidents.
A case in point is that of Tamil Nadu and its capital Chennai, where thousands of unauthorized hoardings were removed on the directions of the Supreme Court in 2008, revealing hidden green landscapes and urban skylines.
Unfortunately, this action was not sustained. Among the first violators were political parties, with many leaders encouraging their larger-than life projections on flex banners and illuminated cut-outs.
Considerable outrage was triggered in Chennai in 2019, when a young woman scooterist lost her life in a road accident after she was hit by a banner put up by a political party.
With lucrative outdoor advertising rights being cornered by politically influential individuals and cartels. there is little administrative will to enforce legal and all-weather structural stability requirements.
A lack of manpower in municipalities to enumer ate unlicensed hoardings, periodically inspect authorized billboards, and act against unstable or illegal ones, also contributes to accidents.
It is of concern that the judiciary, which calls for a regulation of billboards, often passes orders restrain- ing authorities from removing unauthorized ones.
Violators deserve stringent punishment; in the case of deaths, it would be appropriate to slap graver charges, blacklist and recover compensation from them, and also prosecute complicit officials.
International studies have pointed to billboards being dangerous distractions on roads as they affect a driver’s response time, vehicle lateral control and situational awareness.
Accidents caused by such distractions must be documented in the annual Road Accidents in India report.
This could help devise better policies on billboards and the outdoor advertising market, globally poised to grow to $67.8 billion in 2023.

Practice Questions:

What could help devise better policies on billboards?
What action could not be sustained?

Important Vocabs:

Poised- not moving but ready to move
Complicit- involved with others in an activity that is unlawful
Prosecute- to officially charge somebody with a crime and try to show that he/she is guilty
Hoarding- to collect and store large quantities of something
Curbing- to limit or control something