This minister8217;s PR is bad

MUMBAI, Sept 21: Maharastra's Minister of State for Home, Information and Public Relations, Gajanan Kirtikar, has gone into overdrive onc...

MUMBAI, Sept 21: Maharastra8217;s Minister of State for Home, Information and Public Relations, Gajanan Kirtikar, has gone into overdrive once again in a desperate attempt to prop up the sagging image of the alliance government. But his enthusiasm is not one bit contagious. Instead, it has wounded officers of the Information and Public Relations Department, who say they have never before felt so demoralised.

Blaming the ministers for eroding the public8217;s confidence in the government, they say they are clearly being scapegoated. Says one officer: The ministers are passing the buck to the Publicity Department as the government8217;s public image is directly linked to the ministers8217; performance.

To begin with, Director General of the Directorate of Information and Public Relations DIPR, A V Deshpande, has been transferred to the Directorate of Social Welfare, Pune, as director general. Deshpande, known as a discilplinarian, was today replaced by Anand Limaye, former collector of Nanded district. Limaye got on tothe job from day one, visited officials of the publicity department and got himself acquainted with the work. His gestures are seen as indications that the department will now have to work in the top gear for next one and a half year, when the next Assembly elections are scheduled.

As a next step, Kirtikar has summoned a meeting of all Publicity Department officials on September 23 at Mantralaya. The minister plans to review the performance of the officials vis a vis the schemes announced by the state government. The officials have asked to come armed ith a list of documents so that their performance could be assessed. The list includes latest information about progress and present situation of various state government schemes, different booklets and folders published by the publicity department and a list of clarifications sent to different newspapers after the latter published newsreports damaging the government8217;s image.

The officials say that though publication of booklets is in their hands,circulating the booklets to get a proper impact was not their cup of tea. 8220;Looking after circulation of various publications is handled by others. Usually, these publications are posted to all gram panchayats so that people come to know about it. Effectiveness of this system is out of our control,8221; the officials said. About the newspaper clarifications, they feel there is hardly anything they can control.

But this is not all. On September 19, 1998, the officials received a copy of a one-line office order. It reads: 8220;To accelerate the work of the Publicity Department, Deputy Director news, Sharad Chaudhary has been appointed to monitor and control the day to day work of the departmental publicity officials.8221; This, the officials feel, is yet another trick to pressurise the publicity officers for creating a positive image of the ministers. 8220;Usually, each officer has to look after publicity of two to three ministers. All of them summon us same time, making it difficult for us. If one of the minister isfrom Shiv Sena and the other from Bharatiya Janata Party, each one of them accuses that we are neglecting his publicity,8221; said the officials.

In a similar such meeting a few months back, Kirtikar had blamed the officials of non-performance and said the alliance failed to secure many seats in the Lok Sabha elections only because there was not enough publicity of the government. Kirtikar had also threatened the officials of transfer if they failed to project the state government in good light.