Monday, October 31, 2011

This cop is on a mission to win more friends for Aavin

CHENNAI: You could say he is addicted to making friends. Prateep V Philip, inspector general of police and the man who founded Friends of Police (FOP), a pioneering concept in community policing, is now on a new mission. As chief vigilance officer of Aavin, the maverick police officer has embarked on a task to create a new forum - Friends of Aavin'. His objective: to strengthen the bond between the milk brand and its customers.
Philip's aim is to encourage Aavin customers to provide feedback and suggestions for improving the functioning and vigilance mechanism in the milk marketing federation. People can email him at cvoaavin@gmail.com or speak to him on the telephone. "Customer response will go a long way in promoting the brand equity of the group; it is beneficial for both manufacturer and customer. With 11 lakh card holders and several million others who buy from our retail outlets, Aavin is one of the most popular brands in Tamil Nadu. Many Aavin products are sold even in the northern parts of the country. It is also one of the cheapest branded milk in the world," said Philip.
To be a member of Friends of Aavin, customers need not formally register their names. "Every customer automatically becomes a member. We only expect them to be as pure as the milk we supply," he said, tongue-in-cheek, adding, "The information they convey should be nothing but the truth. We have more than 50 hot milk parlours and 100 vending machines in Chennai. If we get to know that Aavin staff charge more than the MRP or cheat customers on quantity, we take strict disciplinary action under the Consumer Act and Essential Commodities Act."
Based on a complaint, Philip and his team raided an Aavin milk parlour in Koyambedu on Wednesday and recommended disciplinary action against two employees for engaging an outsider as support staff. Also, instead of 120 ml of hot milk, the employees were giving only 100 ml to customers. "We found the parlour staff siphoning off Rs 2,000 a day. They shared the booty among themselves," he said.
Philip has modelled his Aavin experiment after FOP, which he started in 1993 when he was Ramanathapuram superintendent of police. FOP, in many ways, is a national blue print for community policing and has over six lakh members across Tamil Nadu. By facilitating closer interaction between police and public, it aims at upholding human rights by police personnel and allaying misapprehensions public have about the person in khaki. Philip has won several awards, including the prestigious Queen's Award in 2002 for innovation in police training and development.
Inspired by the success of FOP, people working in many sectors have floated similar fora such as Friends of Passengers in transport corporations, Friends of Beach by beach-goers for improving beach safety and upkeep, and Friends of Security for improving the efficiency of security personnel.
Philip is one of the key witnesses in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. He was standing very close to the former Prime Minister when the latter got killed. Scores of pellets had pierced Philip's body and everytime he passes through a metal detector now, there is a beep sound.

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