'Govt Press ready to take up any challenge'
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR

Imphal, July 19 2016: The Government Press is ever ready to undertake any printing order from the various Government departments and would go to any length to deliver on time, asserted Toijam Dev Anand, Assistant Director of the Directorate of Printing & Stationery, Government of Manipur while addressing media persons at a press conference as a part of the series organized by DIPR at its complex in Moirangkhom.

To bolster the claim, he cited the instance of the Government Press working almost 24 hours, to deliver ballot papers in the last Municipal council elections.

Th Damudor Singh, Asstt Superintendent and Th Binodkumar, Asstt Superintendent also attended the press conference.

The Govt Press, Manipur undertakes printing, binding and publication works.

It prints standardized forms, Gazettes, magazines, pamphlets, brochures, posters etc for State Government departments and Central Government Departments.

It also undertakes printing of election related documents and ballot papers for local body elections conducted by the State Election Commission and State Assembly and Lok Sabha Elections conducted by the Election Commission of India.

One of the sources of the Directorate is through selling of State Gazettes and other publications.

One of the major achievement of the department is the publication of Directorate's calendar since 1990 and diary since 2013 .

The Department managed to collect Rs 17.65 lakh in the non-tax revenue collection for the year 2014 � 2015 against the target of Rs 8.40 lakh, and for the year 2015 � 2016 it collected Rs 10.02 lakh against the target of Rs 3.46 lakh.

For the current year 2016 � 2017, it has collected Rs 8.92 lakh till date.

On the suggestion of undertaking all printing work of the various State Government departments most of which outsources their printing to private parties, the Asst Director said it is not upto the Printing & Stationery department to print at the Government Press only as it is not mandatory as per Government policy.

Listing some of the handicaps, T Dev Anand said lack of a proper office, shortage of manpower especially after downsizing, inability to buy printing machines of latest technology have hampered the working of the Department.

The genesis of the Directorate of Printing & Stationery, Manipur can be traced to the establishment of Government Press, Manipur as State Printing Press in 1919 following the passing of a resolution in the Manipur State Darbar in 1918.On July 25, 1979, the Govt Press, Manipur was upgraded to a full-fledged Directorate as Directorate of Printing and Stationery, Manipur.

Initially, the directorate was under the Education department but since 1980, it has come under the General Administration Department (GAD) .

The stationery work of the directorate is however handled by the Secretariat Stationery Department.

The Directorate is headed by a Director who is assisted by one Deputy Director, one Assistant Director and three Assistant Superintendents.

Prior to the downsizing/right sizing exercise of Government Departments in 2005, the Directorate of Printing and Stationery, Manipur had a total sanctioned strength of 218 posts of various categories.

At present there are 133 posts in the directorate and 25 vacant posts, the number of post will further come down to 87 only after the completion of downsizing.

The Directorate in keeping with the time has updated to offset printing technology from letterpress technology since tenth Five Year Plan, 2002-2007.The department has installed a number of innovative pre-press, in-press and post-press machinery of offset printing process which has made it feasible to meet the printing demands of various Government departments.

The department also launched an official website (http://www.manipurgovtpress.nic.in) on December 14, 2011 to disseminate information to the general public.

Uploading of Manipur Gazette Extraordinary has been started to this website.

Among other activities of the department include short term in-service training for existing employees with an appropriate lesson plan framed to enhance the skill of the operators.

This training programme is mainly for lasting adaptation to new printing terminologies and to acquaint them with the new operational and chemical processes of the new sophisticated machinery.

The Directorate brings out Manipur Gazette popularly known as Ordinary Gazette which is published weekly on every Wednesday with its parts and Manipur Gazette Extraordinary on everyday except Sundays, Second Saturdays and general holidays.

Gazette copies are in high demand from general public, administrators and law practitioners so much so that the number of subscribers are on the increase.

The Gazette can be subscribed for an annual fee of Rs 400 when personally collected and Rs 500 through post.

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