Gurugram, Feb 10 : A large number of illegal hoardings and banners deface the city's roads and the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has failed to act against violators. The lack of deterrent action on the ground by the MCG has only encouraged political parties to deface the city's landscape. The mushrooming of illegal banners and hoardings are seen all over Gurugram as officials are doing little to stop the illegal practice. Sources told IANS that either the MCG officials are taken for granted or they are scared to take action against the "high profile" offenders that have political clout. Illegal hoardings came up along the main roads of the city, state highways, sector raids and the national highway. A few hoardings also contain messages from political leaders displaying birthday wishes. Besides, hoardings of religious functions are also spotted in the city. Residents demand that authorities remove the illegal hoardings as the earliest. Akhilesh Kumar, Joint Commissioner zone-1 of the MCG told IANS: "Our encroachment team spots violations in the district from time to time and takes further action against the violators and recently an FIR was also registered against the local councillor for violating the norms." But, surprisingly the illegal hoarding of the councillor against whom the FIR was registered can be seen on the city's bus stand road. Banners of political parties have covered the key junctions and roads across the city sans mandatory permission from the MCG. "Where is the law this is double standard. The common man is not permitted to put up a banner for free. Why is the same not applying to politicians," Nishant Verma, a Sector-30 resident said. "The politicians of the BJP have their photos on all the banners across MCG limits. None of the banners has permission stickers on them which indicates that the advertisement norms have been flouted," Rajesh Yadav, a Congress leader said, adding that the MCG should expose this scam which is causing heavy loss to the state. /IANS