Don’t police stations in the capital have enough money to get their name boards displayed?
Many are raising this question after glow sign name boards emerged on the premises of some police stations in the city, with the name of a private cellular phone company displayed on either side. Never in the history of the State police, had name board of a police station exhibited the name of a private company working with profit making as the motive.
Scores of people go in and come out of police station daily. “The inexplicable reasons behind flaunting the phone company’s name and logo on the station’s name board is giving the company wide publicity. What made the Government do this,” asks R. Giridhar of Boduppal.
Interestingly, not all police stations have same boards. In North Zone of Hyderabad, the Bowenpally and Begumpet police stations have these boards. Even the Begumpet ACP office name board is similarly made.
“I have no clue why that board was erected. It was already there when I took charge three months ago,” says ACP B. Srihari. Chapter 34 and 612 rule of Andhra Pradesh Police Manual (APPM) states that the name of every law and order police station … shall be painted in .. i.e., in dark navy blue on white background.
It further mentions that the board should be in Telugu, Hindi and English. “Breaching the APPM from colour and language points of view, such boards raise doubts if the police are trying to provide publicity to a particular company,” feels Azeez of Malakpet.
The APPM makes it clear that no fancy board is permitted. According to it, it is mandatory to have a separate board with the words police station on both sides of it in red on white background on roadside in front of the police station. Strangely, this is not complied with at considerable number of police stations in the city.
