Principal Secretary, Planning, Development & Monitoring, Estates and Information, Rohit Kansal Thursday stressed on widening the ambit of activities of the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) and called for reviving the glory and traditions for which the Department held a unique position.
The Principal Secretary was speaking at a meeting convened at Media Complex here to review the functioning of the Department.
Addressing the meeting, the Principal Secretary stressed on further professionalizing the activities of the Department to serve as a bridge between the Government and the media.
He impressed upon the officers to widen the ambit of the departmental activities which are mainly focused on the welfare of the people. He directed constituting departmental teams so that grievances and complaints of the general public appearing in print, audiovisual and online mediums are monitored and reach to the concerned and accordingly appropriate feedback from them is elicited for redressal of public issues.
Kansal said that effective feedback about various programmes, developmental activities and other issues would bring overall efficiency in the administration as well as in public journalism. He also said that the department should carry success stories and features about what various departments have done from peoples’ perspective besides do public interest stories and packages.
The Principal Secretary said the Department has a rich collection of rare photographs and advised organizing exhibitions to showcase them to art lovers and general people.
Earlier, a detailed presentation about the overall functioning of the Department and the initiatives taken to further improvise the overall productivity at various levels was given to the Principal Secretary. He was briefed about the functioning of Media Facilitation Centre and its facilitation to media fraternity. The role played by the Department in the successful conduct of flagship ‘Back-to-Village’ Phase II, recent visit of Union Ministers and Republic Day functions across the Jammu and Kashmir was also highlighted.
The meeting was also informed that the Department has disbursed advertisements to the tune of Rs 19 crore during the last fiscal and an amount of Rs 16 crore stands expended till September 2019.
During the meeting, threadbare discussions were held over issues including shortage of human resource at various levels, regularization of contractual/ need-based staff, shortage of equipment in the Department, and regular holding of Departmental Promotion Committees.
The Principal Secretary assured that all the issues and grievances projected during the meeting will be examined and looked into for their redressal in a speedy manner. He appreciated the efforts and work done by the Department in challenging circumstances and called for reviving the glory and traditions for which the department wielded a distinct position.
Later, the Principal Secretary inspected Media Facilitation Centre set up by Directorate of Information and Public Relations at Media Complex here and interacted with media persons to enquire about the facilities being provided to them at the Centre.