CHENNAI: The City traffic police has finally reduced the advertisement space in the road barricades, over a year after the Madras High Court had completely banned any advertisements in the same. The newly designed posters on many barricades in the city, instead, predominantly carry the text ‘Police’ in bold letters. The names and logos of the private establishments that had sponsored the barricades, were given about 30 per cent of the display space in the bottom.
In a story titled ‘Tricky Ad-venture’ published in these columns on March 24, Express had highlighted how the practice of police directly getting sponsorship from private companies, threatens its image as a neutral law enforcement agency. The article had also highlighted how the city police has erected numerous signboards across the City, which predominantly carry advertisements of commercial establishments.
Regarding the newly designed stickers on the barricades, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) A Arun told Express, “The old barricades have been painted. They had full advertisements in the centre and now we have stuck stickers titled ‘POLICE’ on a white background. Now, the respective names of the companies have been pushed to a corner into about 30 per cent of the space. In much older barricades, even those are removed and only the name of the police station is present.” He said after a period of six months, the names of the sponsors will be completely removed and replaced with road safety awareness slogans.
The Madras High Court in an order on December 12, 2017, had ruled that no advertisements should be there on the road barricades.”In short, advertisements should not be permitted on boards or sheets attached to barricades. There should not be any form of writing on the barricades which would divert the attention of the drivers,” the high court had ruled.