Polls near, PIB has no time for ministries’ publicity work

It’s not just the Finance Ministry asking ministries to ready themselves for a vote-on-account, the I&B Ministry has asked its publicit...

It’s not just the Finance Ministry asking ministries to ready themselves for a vote-on-account, the I&B Ministry has asked its publicity wing, the Press Information Bureau (PIB), to publicise the achievements of ministries statewise.

The idea of state-wise progress of ministries is inspired by the success in MP where in the recent Assembly polls, the ‘‘failures’’ of the Digvijay government were highlighted through detailed surveys. The directive has put the bureau in a fix — accustomed as it is to focus on ministries’ achievements on the national level. The key areas for the present exercise are Rural Development, Agriculture, HRD Ministry, Finance, Food and Civil Supplies and Power.

The only hitch in the exercise, according to Information officials in charge of various ministries, is that state-wise achievements of various ministries is not possible right now. ‘‘It is too mammoth an exercise to be undertaken in such a short span,’’ they argue, adding with over 65 publicity officers at Centre, manpower shortage is evident. The short span being till April which the likely time for elections.

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MP itself took seven to eight months of intensive research on the state’s 45 districts — an example unlikely to be duplicated at the national level.

But the intention of the ministry is clear. In fact, last week Planning Commission officials met senior officials of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, the Directorate of Field Publicity and the PIB for consultations. Also being taking into confidence are the autonomous Prasar Bharati Corporation’s AIR and DD.