In a move that may irk the Members of Parliament (MPs) across political parties, the Indian Railways has decided not to name the dignitaries in its advertisements related to any new project or initiative, the transporter’s publicity department said in a notice on Monday. A senior official said that the advertisements will instead contain details of the projects.
“There should be no names of dignitaries in the advertisement except of the person who is inaugurating the event,” the directorate of information and publicity (DIP) department said in the instruction issued to the zonal offices.
The instruction was issued last month and has already been implemented in few projects, including the recent event at Lucknow railway station where Foor Over Bridges and Skywalk was inaugurated and foundation stone was laid for redevelopment of Charbagh railway station.
“Quality of display advertisement now being brought out by Railways is very poor. Presently, there are only names in advertisement. There is no information about project or any advantages of project. There should be no names of dignitaries in the advertisement except of the person who is inaugurating the event. In display advertisement if photograph of Hon’ble PM is used, it should be officially approved photograph,” the instruction sent to the zonal offices reads.
As per the procedure, if the zonal offices are issuing any advertisement in the newspaper and using the photo of PM, it has to be approved by the PMO. To use photo of railway minister, the advertisement need to be approved by the Ministry of Railways.
The order effectively means, unless an MP is inaugurating a project, his name will not be there in the advertisement. However, name of MPs can be there on the backside of invitation card, which is sent a day before the inauguration.
“The instruction has been issued so that the common public gets to know about the project that is going to come in the area. By giving names, we often have to cut down on the details of the project. It has been decided to give details of the project in the space for the advertisement,” said Ved Prakash, Director of the publicity department of the Railways.(HT)
