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Smt Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister for Information & Broadcasting, chaired the meeting of Consultative Committee of I&B Ministry to discuss about the broad schematics of the Integration of Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity (DAVP), Directorate of Field Publicity (DFP) and Song & Drama Division (S&DD) into Bureau of Outreach Communications (BOC).Smt Irani apprised the Members of the Committee about the integration of DAVP, DFP and S&DD into Bureau of Outreach Communication. She explained to the members how integrating various media units which were working in silos would achieve synergy and Integrated Media Management could be done effectively. She also explained that such a move would help in reducing the establishment cost and rational utilization of human resources.
Members of the Committee appreciated the reform oriented efforts of the Ministry and suggested that such reforms will play a vital role in taking communication to the last mile. Members also suggested to conduct an impact assessment study on the integration of media units and impart training to the officials so that it will enable them to work in an integrated manner.
A presentation was made by Shri Sanjay Murthy, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on behalf of the Ministry giving details about the integration of three media units into Bureau of Outreach Communications. Members of the committee were apprised about the advantages due to integration of the media units.
At present, DFP conducts Special Outreach Programs, Exhibition, Mass awareness rallies,sensitization activities in schools, colleges, etc to create awareness about the Government schemes and ensure the reach of the last man. S&DD disseminates awareness through traditional folk and art forms including drama, dance, songs, nukkad natak, etc. DAVP is the nodal agency for undertaking multimedia advertising and publicity through static and mobile exhibitions. All the above three organizations have similar mandate but work in silos. So it suffers from lack of coordination, lack of synergy between the units at the center and the regions, poor distribution & utilisation of Human Resources in the regions, huge establishment and expenditure, etc. So integration of all the three media units mentioned above was proposed.
The integrated Media unit would be called Bureau of Communication and it would be headed by a Director General rank officer. An Additional Director General rank officer from ICAS would assist him in financial matters. Bureau of Outreach Communication would help in creating integrated communication strategy in coordination with PIB. It will act as an advisory body for the Ministries on their media campaign.
At the regional level, the media units are integrated into Regional Outreach Bureau (ROB) with an Additional Director General level officer as the Head of the Department for Regional Outreach Bureau. There will be only one common office for all three media units at the Region.A Senior Accounts Officer of ICAS would assist the Additional Director General in financial matters.
At the field level, all 251 field units of the three media units are merged into 148 field units. Programmes would be planned as per requirement of the Regional Outreach Bureau. Integration of the media units will help in reducing the establishment expenditure, seamless coordination and effective monitoring of activities. It will also help in rationalizing the Human Resources and avoid duplication of work.
Parliamentarians Shri Vivek Gupta, Smt Dev (Moon Moon Sen) Varma, Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, Shri Harivansh, Shri Neeraj Shekhar attended the meeting. Secretary I&B, Shri NK Sinha and senior officers of the Ministry were also present on the occasion.
