Fund fracas

The top brass of the PIB office in Chennai, including most of Indian Information Service officers, have been transferred, apparently on the advice of the CBI. The Central investigating agency had raided the Chennai PIB office about three months ago following complaints that some officers had misappropriated funds meant for public information campaigns. These campaigns were started by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry about a year ago to highlight programmes of the Government and typically cost Rs 8-10 lakh per campaign.