Amplify govt message on Covid-19, hold daily briefings at district level: Centre tells states

The order sent by Amit Khare, secretary Information and Broadcasting, asked states to organise daily briefings on Covid-19 at district level.

Updated on: May 11, 2021, 22:58:20 IST

By Shishir Gupta, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

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The Centre on Tuesday sent a directive to states and union territories to organise daily briefings on the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) situation at the district level. The decision was taken during a review meeting on public health response to Covid-19 to check the misinformation around it.

File photo of information and broadcasting secretary Amit Khare.

The order has been sent to chief secretaries of the state by secretary, information and broadcasting Amit Khare, who also heads the empowered group working on communication.

"Since timely dissemination of correct information acts as a check on spread of misinformation and rumours/fake news, you may like to suitably advise the district collectors and senior officers of district administration in your state/UT to hold daily press briefings," the order said.

It further said that the briefings will highlight "salient initiatives taken by the government and civil society/individuals".

"This is crucial at this stage as the pandemic has spread its wings in the rural areas and correct information about the guidelines issued and steps taken by the government should reach the local people from trustworthy sources," the order said.

The Centre's directive highlighted the regular briefings held by the ministry of information & broadcasting, which it said help in disseminating facts and latest information about the various aspects of the pandemic before the people.

In another order, Khare also asked the chief secretaries to intensify awareness drive on Covid-19 with a focus on vaccination.

He also said that various ministries of central government - like AYUSH, health, home and panchayati raj - have issued various advisories and guidelines in the wake of second wave of Covid-19. The order said that the messages and advisories need to be amplified to reach the last mile.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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