For ‘positive’ publicity, govt to post two officers in Delhi

The Trinamool Congress government seems to be keen on an image-building exercise through publicity in the wake of a string of negative events — rising incidents of crimes against women, political violence and the most recent, the exit of a cargo-handling firm from the state. Interestingly, the government believes that the image-making over excerise should be from Delhi — the centre of power.

Last Friday, the cabinet approved the creation of Information Management Executive for the information desk at West Bengal Information and Culture Department. There will be two Information Management Executives who will be posted at the Resident Commissioner's office at Delhi. Their main job will be to act as publicity officers of the state government. The posts will be filled up through a selection process and the successful candidates will get a monthly remuneration of somewhere between Rs 25000-40,000.

This is the first time that such posts have been created at the Delhi desk of the Resident Commissioner's Office in Delhi. "In order to disseminate relevant information pertaining to the state government and with a view to strengthening the press and publicity relation activities of the state government in Delhi, it was decided that two posts of Information Management Executive be created," reads a cabinet memo circulated to the ministers.

A senior minister on condition of anonymity said: "The welfare activities of Ma Mati Manush government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee do not get the required publicity in Delhi. Instead negative publicity is done by the regional and national media. Our chief minister has complained a number of times that the media only present concocted news against the state government and good initiatives of the state government never gets publicity."

At a public programme, Mamata had even advised people to watch television serials instead of watching news channels.

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