After a series of mistakes, including mis-spelling Sheila Dikshit's name, her office has decided to `monitor' all the advertisements that are released by the departments. An official letter, dated February 5, has been sent to all the heads of departments of the Government to route their ads through the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) ``so that the right message reaches the people.''

It's a tough task to monitor all the advertisements as there are around 100 departments including various local bodies. But the CMO is ready. ``They spell the name wrong. Instead of Sheila they print Sila or something. Then they publish her message in the advertisement that she had never delivered,'' says an official at the CMO.

Another bureaucrat says it's just insecurity. ``The new government does not trust any of the bureaucrats. Dikshit has not been in power long enough to develop the rapport with the officials which is crucial for developing a symbiotic relationship,'' he says.

The senior official, who finds such an exercise bound to fail after a few months, feels that it might raise fingers at the CMO for possible favouritism.

Denying that any attempt has been made to corner the power of issuing ads, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister S. Reghunathan said, ``Even with earlier Chief Ministers we used to ask their opinion for ads.'' He adds: ``This recent move is only for campaign ads like the pulse polio campaigns.''

Earlier Chief Ministers, all of them from the Bharatiya Janata Party, have had their own expressions of insecurity. ``We have had similar directives during the then Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma's time, but they were never as explicit as these,'' says an official.