CHANDIGARH: How do visitors find their way in the city? The layout maps and guiding signs have been sprayed over, smeared with posters, and scratched beyond legibility, if these haven't faded out.Student leaders and small businesses have turned these into personal billboards. "The rules against sticking posters, bills, and pamphlets over these signs ought to be stricter," said tourist Tavleen Kaur , pointing to a defaced layout map outside the Sector-10 DAV College.Sprayed over with paint about seven months ago, a layout map outside the Sector-10 petrol-filling station has kept its ugly look.A guiding sign in Sector 33 was scratched dirty beyond comprehension. Another on the Dakshin Marg near Junction 35 is hardly of any use, since its paint has worn out. Defaced signs are all over the city.In 2016, police moved on from the West Bengal Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1976, and started following the stricter Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 2007. Under the new rules, the penalty for defacement is Rs 50,000 or a year of imprisonment, or both.Asked for a solution to the recurring defacements around the city, senior superintendent of police Eish Singhal said police act on all complaints but it could not deploy men around every sign."A better way of catching the culprits is to install security cameras near the boards."UT chief engineer Mukesh Anand was unavailable for comments, in spite of repeated attempts to reach him.

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