To give a publicity boast to the UPA government before elections in five states and general elections in 2008, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is planning to rejuvenate the field publicity units, that were debunked on the basis of recommendations of the Expenditure Reforms Commission (ERC).
HT Image
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
The government had stopped financial allocation for the field units from the current financial year in a bid to curb the ministry’s expenditure. However, the decision did not go well with the Left parties, as large number of people would have lost their jobs and many in West Bengal. Moreover, the decision had a direct implication for Left parties as many of the units being closed were in West Bengal.
In wake of the resistance from the Left parties and the government feeling paucity of a publicity unit at the ground level, the ministry has now mooted the proposal to revive 300 field publicity units in the country. Each unit is headed by a gazetted officer and the team of about 10-15 members is hired locally.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
{{^usCountry}}
According to ministry officials, the field publicity units were created in 1959 was an aim to publicise government policies and create awareness about the programmes in rural areas. However, the Expenditure Reforms Commission found that these units had lost value in wake of emergence of radio and television and new modes of mass media.
{{/usCountry}}
{{#usCountry}}
According to ministry officials, the field publicity units were created in 1959 was an aim to publicise government policies and create awareness about the programmes in rural areas. However, the Expenditure Reforms Commission found that these units had lost value in wake of emergence of radio and television and new modes of mass media.
{{/usCountry}}
Now, the ministry believes that the commission’s view was not correct. "The present day mass media is more about entertainment than information about government policies. Most of the new programmes of the UPA government are for development in rural areas and therefore we need these units," a ministry official explained.
Officials also said the need for publicity in rural areas of government schemes was being as elections in five states will be held next year and general elections in 2008. "We have plans to undertake extensive publicity programmes for all the flagship programmes of the UPA government," an official said.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
