Murals painted thrice ahead of CM Kamal Nath's visit in Sagar

Murals painted on the wall of Police Training Center ground in Sagar by a citizen's group 'Hum Hain Insaan' was replaced by Chief Minister Kamal Nath's painting by the city administration within 24 hours ahead of CM's visit to the city on the occasion of Ravi Das Jayanti.

While speaking to , the Municipal Commissioner of Sagar, RP Ahirwar said, "It is our duty and responsibility to advertise the government schemes. Police Training Center ground belongs to the government."

However, as the team of youth opposed this move, CM's portrait was painted over with the names of government schemes. Hence, the wall was painted over thrice within 24 hours on Saturday.

A team namely "Hum Hain Insaan" consisting of almost 50 youth took an initiative to clean the public places and repaint the dirty walls across the city with cultural paintings and artefacts after taking prior permission from the State corporation.

"We had started painting the walls here before January 26. We used to work for almost 12 hours a day to transform these walls here and this was the best campaign till date in the PTC Ground. But now these walls have been painted with white colour by the corporation as Chief Minister will be visiting the PTC Ground," Shubham Srivastava, member of Hum Hain Insaan team told .

"The wall here has been repainted and CM Kamal Nath's portrait has been painted to impress him. We are not against CM's paintings but the corporation should have repainted the walls which needed a revamp," he added.

However, the Municipal Corporation Commissioner, RP Ahirwar told that it is the corporation's duty to promote government schemes.

"It is our duty to promote government schemes wherever people emerge in large crowd. Repainting the walls is a painter's job. Over 50,000 people will be coming here so it's our duty to do so. It's a government wall and not a private wall," said RP Ahirwar.

Meanwhile, Minister of Renewable Energy Harsh Yadav said that it is essential to promote the government schemes which are related to the general public.

"Chief Minister is arriving here and it's necessary to promote the government schemes which are for the general public. People in large number are going to visit here so it's essential to inform them about the schemes. The State government has banned hoardings and flexes here," he added.

On the other hand, Congress leader Manak Agarwal stated that the administration shouldn't have painted Chief Minister Kamal Nath's portraits on the wall and the achievements of the State government should have been painted elsewhere.

"Whatever the administration has to do, it should be done with a lot of thinking. Chief Minister himself doesn't like if his paintings are installed or slogans are being chanted. However, the achievements of the government must be mentioned," Agarwal told .

"The murals which were painted earlier shouldn't have been painted over CM's portraits. Instead of this, the government's achievements should have been painted elsewhere. We'll take cognizance of this matter and action will be taken against those responsible behind this move," he added.

( With inputs from ANI )