Cement firm, two govt depts play villain in Chhattisgarh

Painted on the rocks all along the busy Kanker Road up to Keskal in Bastar region are advertisements of cement company Grasim. And if that is not enough, someone has covered the surface of the rocks with slogans and messages of Jesus Christ.

What makes it worse is that two state government departments, the Education and Forest Departments, have also used the rocks to spread their own messages on literacy and forest conservation.

Local government officials, when asked about this, only passed the buck on to their predecessors.

District Collector, Kanker, S.N. Druv expressed ignorance about the damage done to the rocks. ‘‘I took charge only a few weeks ago. I have not been to that area yet,’’ he said.

When reminded of the Supreme Court’s orders in the case of the defacement of rocks along the Rohtang-Manali bypass following reports in The Indian Express, Druv agreed to send a team to verify the matter and promised to take appropriate action against the guilty.

Grasim’s marketing manager Vineet Tiwari, refusing to accept responsibility for the defacement of the rocks, said: ‘‘I don’t think our advertisers would have done something like that but we will take up the matter with them.’’

According to geologists, the rocks in Bastar and Kanker are some of the finest rocks available.

‘‘They are considered the best kinds of rocks,’’ said G.L. Badam, an archaeologist with the state government’s Department of Art and Culture.