"All depts asked to abide by advt policy"
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, February 16 2018:
IPR Minister Th Biswajit today informed the Manipur Legislative Assembly that all departments of the State Government have been directed to abide by the Manipur State Advertisement Policy.
In the course of discussing demands in the State Assembly today, Opposition Member Kh Joykisan said that there are lapses in implementing the Manipur State Advertisement Policy, the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) cannot deliver annual diary to MLAs and it is unable to pay advertisement bills the directorate owes to local newspapers Responding to the policy cut motion, Th Biswajit said that the recent suspension of two DIPR officials was related with publication of annual diary.
The facts of the matter would be ascertained after a departmental enquiry is done, he said.
The annual diary published by DIPR was printed for the second time as there were certain errors in the first one.
Two copies each of the annual diary (first print) and calendar have been delivered to MLAs and one copy each of diary printed for the second time too has been delivered to MLAs.
If any Member has not received the diary (second print), the same would be delivered, Biswajit assured.
While departments abided by the Manipur State Advertisement Policy, some others did not.
The Government would see whether a clause should be inserted in the Manipur State Advertisement Policy so that all the departments comply with the policy compulsorily, Biswajit said.
Advertisement bills the directorate owes to local newspapers could not be cleared completely as no fund was earmarked in the budget for the same purpose on account of the hasty nature of preparing the budget.
Nonetheless, the Government has already given access authorisation and all the pending bills would be cleared within the current month, Biswajit said.
He further assured that there would be no such problems in 2018-19.The incumbent Government has been examining the amount given as ex-gratia to journalists killed in the line of duty.
Hiking the ex-gratia amount from the present Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh demands consideration of the State's financial condition, he said.
The existing rate of Rs 2 lakh is give from a corpus fund of Rs 10 crore.
Journalists are given Rs 2 lakh if they are crippled for life, Rs one lakh if they suffer critical illness and Rs 50,000 to those who suffer injuries, Biswajit.
He added the Government would consider hiking the ex-gratia amount to Rs 5 lakh.