Printing, ad industry face trouble

Chennai: With Madras high court and Election Commission issuing strict guidelines banning political banners, posters and advertisement hoardings, traders into printing and flex hoardings are winding up business units in Chennai. Sources into commercial printing trade at Triplicane and Chindatripet admit business has been affected by more than 70 per cent in the past two years.

“Since 2014, the printing of posters and banners has been badly affected in Chennai. Even the 2014 Lok Sabha polls failed to bring in any additional business”, laments N. Santhosh, proprietor, Digital World, displaying his printing machine bought last year and now kept idle. “Eyeing the 2016 assembly polls, I purchased this machine under installment, but now paying salaries for my six workers is an issue. Posters and banner orders during the wedding seasons are the only lifeline and election times are no longer a bonanza for the outdoor advertisement industry,”  he adds.

“Earlier, customers from Chennai will throng the suburbs to place printing orders, but now there is hardly any business”, says R. Gunasekaran of Mercury Communications, Krishna Nagar, Tambaram. “I stocked 80 GSM paper reams fearing that the material cost will surge from Rs 1,550 to Rs 2,500 during polls, but now there is no much business orders. Due to the strict model code of conduct the usually poor printing business is now in th doldrums,” he adds.

The entire industry is affected and those who have invested in stocks are now running into financial constraints. The election commission should be liberal as advertisements are not a major crime like cash for votes, he opines. “For every 100 posters, I get Rs 300 and have been pasting posters in Kancheepuram district for the past 28 years, but now the scenario for casual workers is worst affected,” says D. Sekar of west Tambaram.