Merely an ornamental Govt Dept : Time to revamp the DIPR
- Sangai Express Editorial :: February 26, 2014 -

Time to call a spade a spade.

Time to tutor the State Government on what the Directorate of Information and Public Relations is all about.

Time also to tutor the people who are at the helm of affairs of this department on what they are supposed to do and not do.

In many ways, the State DIPR is today nothing much more than a white elephant or a gravy train and the gravity of this observation should be seen in the backdrop of the fact that it is none other than the Chief Minister who is also the Information Minister.

As Government Department goes, where does the DIPR exactly stand today ?

The very term Information and Public Relations should be more than indicative of the point that the DIPR is the Government agency which should be keeping the people informed of the various policies and development programmes being taken up all over the State, especially in the hills and far flung areas via the media, be it the newspapers, the radio and the Television.

Sure the State Government has its own spokesperson in the person of Education Minister M Okendro, but is this enough ?

A bridge between the Government and the public, that is what the DIPR should be about.

But far from being a bridge between the public and the Government, the DIPR is today nothing much more than an ornamental Government institution seen by many of the top ranking officers as some sort of a place where they are sent on a punishment posting.

A clear reflection of the failure to realise the importance of the department, whose primary duty is not only to keep the people informed about the works taken up by the Government but also to bolster its image.

Or is it a case of the Government caring two hoots about how the public perceives it ?

To a large extent the failure to realise the importance of this department may be attributed to the short sightedness of the Government, which is under the impression that it should be run and managed by persons who know nothing about what is information and how to disseminate it to the public.

As things today, the top ranked officer, directly in charge of the said department is from a totally different background, a bureaucrat.

Something akin to appointing an Engineer to look after the Medical Directorate.

To infuse life into the DIPR and streamline its functioning, which should centre around keeping the people informed about the activities of the Government, a proper understanding of what is expected from the department is needed.

This is the age of professionals and if the All India Radio, Press Information Bureau and Doordarshan are manned by people from the Indian Information Service, then what is stopping the State Government from entrusting the task of running the affairs of DIPR to a person with a background in journalism ?

Apart from this, what is stopping the State Government from framing a Manipur State Information Service Rules as is done at the Centre and in the neighbouring States ?

The Government can do more such as coming out with fortnightly, if now weekly publications, on the activities of the State Government in different languages which are offered as courses in the HSLC examination.

Or are these asking for too much ? To come to the present functioning of the DIPR brings to mind the adage, “Common sense is the most uncommon sense” and we say this not without reason.

It may sound like we are only stating the case of The Sangai Express but we are given to understand that the English edition of this paper has been categorised as B or C, according to the circulation figures submitted by all the media houses.

It is downright ridiculous to learn that some papers, which are unheard of and not seen in the market or in the households of any locality, have been pegged above the English edition of The Sangai Express.

Most probably the categorisation process must have been made according to the circulation figures worked out by registered and recognised Chartered Accountant firms.

This is where the glaring absence of common sense comes to the fore. Common sense.

To cite an example, Imphal city or for that matter the whole State has no speed limits for motorists, but this does not mean that one can zoom around at 80 or 100 Kms/hour.

The speed of the vehicles is dictated by the traffic volume, a trait of common sense dictating how fast or slow a vehicle must move.

That this trait is missing amongst the present lot of people in the DIPR is amply clear.