Chief Minister said that the Information Department has an important role as the face of the government to create coordination between the government and public. The department should ensure that the public is informed about the works and schemes of the government in simple language through media and various publicity mediums.
Dehradun: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had a review meeting of the state information department and issued various instructions regarding improving the performance of department. The review meeting was held at the Soochna Bhawan located at Ring Road and lasted about 5 hours. During the meeting the CM announced that the amount of Corpus Fund for Journalists Welfare will be increased from Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore.
In the meeting, Chief Minister said that the Information Department has an important role as the face of the government to create coordination between the government and public. The department should ensure that the public is informed about the works and schemes of the government in simple language through media and various publicity mediums.
The review meeting lasted around 5 hours. CM Pushkar Singh Dhami Directed that the information system be strengthened to make the people aware of the public welfare schemes of the government through effective means. Along with the use of modern technology, maximum use of print, electronic mediums as well as social media and YouTube mediums should also be ensured. CM Dhami added that to expedite the work, the Information Department should make full use of e-filing system. The information system should be strengthened in the districts. It should be ensured that the information system is strong in the hill districts of the state as well. For this, senior officers of the department should be made nodal officers of the districts. Regarding the implementation of group insurance for journalists, he has directed the department to test. He said that arrangements should also be made to provide recognition to journalists up to the tehsil level.
Success stories of various schemes and works being run by the government in public interest should be published regularly. The Chief Minister directed the Secretary Information to review the department every 15 days to further expedite the work of the department and improve various arrangements. The Information Department should coordinate with various departments and convey the important works of the government to the general public through the media. He directed that the development booklet should also be presented in digital form. Filmmakers should ne constantly encouraged to produce films in the state and every possible facility should be provided to them. This will also increase the livelihood of the people at the local level.
The Chief Minister directed the officials in the meeting that various events taking place in the district should also be regularly monitored. The District Information officers should ensure that they work in better coordination with the media in the districts. Government schemes should be conveyed to the general public by maintaining constant coordination with the District Magistrate and other district level officers. He directed that special emphasis should be laid on modern technology along with human resources to further strengthen the information system at the district level.
Director General of Information Banshidhar Tiwari briefed the CM about the departmental activities. He shared that 1572 information papers/magazines are listed in the print media in the state, while 41 electronic channels are listed. There are 615 web portals and 13 community radios listed on social media. He said that a lot of posts of personnel are vacant in the department. The recruitment process for Information Officer and other posts is in progress.
MLA Umesh Sharma Kau, Vice President Infrastructure Monitoring Council Vishwas Dawar, Additional Chief Secretary Anand Vardhan, Principal Secretary RK Sudhanshu, Secretary R Meenakshi Sundaram, Secretary Information Shailesh Bagoli, Additional Director Information Ashish Tripathi, Joint Director KS Chauhan, Joint Director Nitin Upadhyay, Senior Finance Officer Shashi Singh, Deputy Director Manoj Shrivastava and Ravi Ravi Bijarniya were present in the meeting.
