CHENNAI: The city corporation was clearly in a hurry to whitewash all the murals on public walls, but with no concrete plan at hand it has become a tough proposition for the civic body to protect them from being defaced.

While the initial plan of painting graffiti of government schemes is still awaiting the chief minister J Jayalalithaa's nod some party cadres have used the clean slate to show their allegiance to chief minister with birthday greetings.

Sources say the previous DMK regime had spent Rs4.5 crores to paint nearly 15 lakh sqft of walls with murals of scenes from rural life, dance forms and historic landmarks. Now, nearly 80% these paintings have been white-washed, said officials.

A senior corporation official said: "We have plans to use the public walls for advertisements of public welfare schemes and for displaying public messages. We are waiting for permission from the state government."

"The murals on Tamil culture had helped to keep the walls clean because people out of respect did not dare deface it with handbills or urinate on them. But unfortunately the murals have disappeared and posters and scribblings are back", the official adds.

Former mayor M Subramanian, during whose tenure the murals were commissioned, said many white washed walls are now being used to campaign for the ruling party. "Some walls are even carrying birthday wishes to the chief minister," he adds.