Chennai: Selective crackdown on traffic booths could see them disappear
Chennai: Come this Agni Nakshathiram, Chennai's overworked traffic cops may lose their protective covers as sponsors of police huts and booths are planning to remove their gifts after a crackdown on sponsor's ads by the traffic police.
Presently these huts/booths provide much needed shade and even a place to sit briefly for the traffic cops at important signals helping them regulate traffic. These booths are allowed to display a public interest message and also the sponsor's brand.
Sources said the traffic police top brass recently issued fresh guidelines that police barricades and the huts/booths should have 70 per cent police branding and 30 per cent sponsor branding. The guidelines came into force on April 1 and many sponsors replaced the stickers on the barricades and booths according to the new specifications.
But suddenly in the second week of April, there were instructions to remove the sponsor branding in the booths and huts. Those on the barricades were allowed to remain. While the cops carried out the boss' orders, it turned out their action was selective as the branding of a leading cement company and builder were left untouched in the exercise while other brands found their stickers removed by the police.
“We have gifted about 30 movable shelters to the city police so far and were planning to give another 50-100 more before the summer peaks. Our agency had even started work but now we've to halt the work as we found our brand being torn off from the booths we had placed. Our agency has taken permission from the police before placing these booths and also adhered to the new display guidelines,” rued the owner of an electrical goods company.
“Strapped for funds, the city police had always relied on private players to provide barricades and booths and allowed a small branding space for the costs incurred. Moreover these movable booths even have solar panels to power a small fan and a mobile charging point to make them self-sufficient instead of illegally tapping power from traffic signals. The police personnel who spent hours at busy intersections found them very useful,” said another sponsor requesting anonymity.
After the hasty and unequal crackdown, the sponsors of these units are now having second thoughts about placing new booths and are even considering removing the existing ones. They also point out there is no level playing field as a prominent jeweller in the city has huge backlit displays on multiple police booths with power drawn from the traffic signals. A cement company has virtually co-branded itself on the Royapettah Police Station's name board, indicating there are different rules for different brands.
