Businesses that stencil illegal advertisements on walls around the city will have their phone numbers disconnected as of March.

Ban said local authorities would collect telephone numbers on bill-poster advertisements and forward them to mobile phone companies for disconnection.

He said an inspection team had already been established to collect mobile numbers across the city. To date, seven mobile phone and 12 cable television and online gaming companies have signed onto the crackdown.

Ha Noi People Committee’s chairman Nguyen The Thao has urged relevant authorities to start removing illegal advertisements in the city this month. Illegal ads should be removed, walls repainted and measures taken to prevent reccurrence of the ads, said Thao.

City police and the judicial department would take responsibility for issuing stricter punishments for violators, while the Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism would be responsible for constructing public advertising boards, Thao said.

Statistics from the People’s Committee showed that 360,000 bill-posted advertisements and 5,400 posters had been removed so far under the crackdown.

But the campaign has so far had a limited focus on public places and key streets. Nguyen Huong Trang, resident of Dao Duy Anh Street, said the walls of her house had been covered with bill-posters for years.

“It’s a waste of time cleaning them as ads reoccur just as fast as the last ones are removed. Something must be done to stop people from using others’ property like that,” Trang said.

The central Hoan Kiem District People’s Committee has decided to issue a fine of VND500,000 (US$26) to those who are caught red-handed.

Meanwhile, in HCM City, Le Quang Vinh from the municipal Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism said they were also mapping out strategies to curb illegal bill-posters by the end of the year.

The department planned to issue penalties like those being implemented in Ha Noi to violators.

“It’s easier now to find the owner of a telephone number,” Vinh said. Especially now that the Ministry of Information and Communication has set a deadline of January 31 for all mobile phone subscribers to register their personal identification.

VietNamNet/VNS