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28.47 crore spent on Govt. advt in Bihar last year

Patna : A man asked his wife to give some biscuits or chocolates to his young child, who was asking too many questions––some very intelligent ones––on a variety of topics at a time. The purpose was simple: to keep the boy’s mouth chock-full, if not shut. This seems to be the strategy adopted by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar.

<p style="text-align: justify;">Patna : A man asked his wife to give some biscuits or chocolates to his young child, who was asking too many questions––some very intelligent ones––on a variety of topics at a time. The purpose was simple: to keep the boy’s mouth chock-full, if not shut. This seems to be the strategy adopted by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar.</p>

Patna : A man asked his wife to give some biscuits or chocolates to his young child, who was asking too many questions––some very intelligent ones––on a variety of topics at a time. The purpose was simple: to keep the boy’s mouth chock-full, if not shut. This seems to be the strategy adopted by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar.

In the last six years it has given so much to the media-houses in the name of advertisements that they can not open their mouths to speak anything. It is another thing that someone may ask: is the media in Bihar as immature as a child and can be hoodwinked into silence by a mouthful of candy?

Another instance of what is now called media-management by the state government has come to light. BiharTimes has exclusive access to the advertisements given to different newspapers and television channels of Bihar in the last one year. It was procured by an RTI activist, Purander Sawaran, from the office of Information & Public Relation Department of Bihar Govt.

This year the state government has given as high as Rs 284,786,399 in the form of advertisements to newspapers and television channels. The figure is much too higher than the earlier years. This huge amount has been disbursed notwithstanding the fact that between September and November 2010 the state government was not in position to give any advertisement because of the election. During that period the advts. by political parties and govt. undertakings are not included in this list.

The strange aspect of the whole ad-story is that as high as Rs 10,12,13,999 (about 35 per cent) has been taken away by one newspaper, Dainik Hindustan while Urdu daily Quami Tanzeem got ad worth about  Rs one crore–– Rs 98,72,810 to be precise––which is slightly less than the Times of India and Economic Times Rs 1,13,52,332 and much more than Hindustan Times Rs 58,63,454 not to speak of other premier dailies.

Dainik Jagaran with Rs 5,33,68,449 crore stood second. What is strange is that Panchjanya, the weekly mouthpiece of the RSS––the cultural organization of the BJP––got advertisement worth just Rs 80,000 in the whole financial year 2010-11.

Hindi and Urdu dailies got much preference so far the distribution of the bounty from the state government is concerned. If Quami Tanzeem with just limited circulation can get such huge amount of advertisement the lesser circulated dailies are not too far behind. Farooqui Tanzeem (Rs 62,35,314), Pindaar (Rs 44,11,220), Inqilab-e-Jadeed  (Rs 20,57,062), Pyari Urdu (Rs 16,30,667), Sangam Rs 13,80,890 and Mosalas (Rs 4,21,899) are are other Urdu dailies from Patna, which got big advertisements. Halaat-e-Bihar, which is published from Samastipur got advertisement worth Rs 6,67,867.

There were obvious reasons for showing so much generosity towards Urdu dailies. The ruling NDA wanted to win over the Muslims, especially on the eve of the Assembly election. An official formerly associated with the PRD told BiharTimes that couple of years back newspaper like Quami Tanzeem used to get more advertisement than Dainik Hindustan.

Senior free lance Urdu journalist, Naiyer Fatmi, who was formerly associated with the Quami Awaz, feels that the latest trend to give so much government advertisements amount to curbing the freedom of Press. The problem with the Urdu and small Hindi newspapers is that they do not belong to the corporate houses. Therefore, they can easily be controlled by the state government for obvious reasons. This is a dangerous trend. So far the amount of advertisement is concerned it may vary as it depends on the rate fixed by the DAVP, he told BiharTimes.

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It needs to be recalled that a huge amount was spent on advertisement on June 9 last year. The reason put forward was the completion of four and a half years of the first Nitish government. The truth is that the four-and-a-half years was completed on April 24, 2010 and not on June 9. The purpose was obvious to give advertisements worth crores to all the newspapers and channels very close to the announcement of the Assembly election. So a substantial amount of Rs 28.4 crore had been spent between April and August 2010, that is, before the announcement of the election.

So far other Hindi dailies are concerned Aaj got Rs 1,30,54,899, Prabhat Khabar Rs 1,10,08,037, Pratyush Nav Bihar Rs 30,29,027 and Rashtriya Sahara Rs 68,88,915. What is strange is that little known Pratah Kamal from Muzaffarpur  and Nai Baat from Bhagalpur got Rs 39,63,519 and Rs 22,11,150 respectively.

English newspapers, which have no edition from Patna are also the beneficiaries. Delhi-based Mail Today got Rs 7,07,635 while The Pioneer and Indian Express got Rs 7,12,994 and Rs 5,95,800 respectively. Mind it the boss of The Pioneer is none else but the BJP MP of Rajya Sabha, Chandan Mitra while the brother of a senior PRD official in Bihar is at a top post in the editorial of Mail Today.

Earlier there used to be no state government advertisement for TV channels. However, the Nitish Kumar government some times back changed the policy.

ETV Bihar got Rs 1,04,25,178, Mahua Rs 98,77,537, IBN Rs 1,46,689, Sahara TV Rs 30,19,556 Sadhna TV Rs 28,83,347 and little known Saubhagya Mithila Rs 27,795.

BrandBihar.com, a news portal got Rs 56,666 while Radio Mirchi Rs 9,41,000.

The Week magazine of south was not left behind. It got Rs 15,20,000.

In all 39 advertisements were given to electronic media and  12,930 to print.

As per the RTI document of 2008-09 the state government had spent around Rs 25.25 crore on advertisement of both print and electronic media. In 2009-10 till February 28, 2010, around Rs 19.66 crore was spent on advertisements.

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What is strange is that in 2005-06 (Nitish Kumar came in power on November 24, 2005) the state spending on advertisements was just around Rs 4.49 crore.

Earlier government advertisements were just confined to tenders, not to highlight development of the state government.  Only on August 15 and January 26 government used to give advertisements highlighting its achievements. Half page or full page photographs of ministers rarely appeared on govt. advts.

In 1990s some central ministries, for example, Railways used to give big advertisements. Ram Vilas Paswan, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad used to give big advertisements to the newspapers of Bihar.

However, the Bihar government advertisement jumped by around Rs 90 lakh in the very first year of the Nitish government. It was Rs 5.4 crore in 2006-07. In 2007-08, it almost got doubled and reached Rs 9.65 crore, an increase of Rs 4.25 crore. It was around this time that electronic media got empanelled by the Public Relations Department.

It needs to be recalled that on November 24, 2009, that is on the eve of completion of four years of the Nitish government, in a single day advertisements worth Rs 1.15 crore were given to 24 different national as well as regional dailies. courtesy : The Bihar Times

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  1. anil pande

    May 12, 2011 at 3:11 pm

    Dainik Jagran Ki Report
    मुख्य पथ का हाल बेहाल, नहीं हुआ जीर्णोद्धार
    May 11, 09:35 pm

    रक्सौल,पूच। भारत-नेपाल सीमा का मुख्य पथ पिछले एक दशक से अपने जर्जर हाल पर आंसू बहा रहा है, परंतु इसका जीर्णोद्धार नहीं हो सका है। रक्सौल से जिला मुख्यालय की 55 किलोमीटर लंबी दूरी, तेज रफ्तार से चलने वाले वाहन ढाई से तीन घंटे में तय करते हैं। दिल्ली-काठमांडू को जोड़ने वाले इस मुख्य पथ का मरम्मत कार्य कभी-कभार हुआ, परंतु मरम्मत के साथ ही पथ टूटता गया है। इस पथ पर सीमा शुल्क कार्यालय से रामगढ़वा 12 किलोमीटर की दूरी तक कई तालाबनुमा गड्ढे बने हुए हैं। इसके साथ ही पथ पर बिखरे पत्थर वाहनों के पहिए से टकरा कर छिटकते हैं, जिससे आए दिन लोग चोटिल होते रहते है। यहां बता दें कि भारत-नेपाल पारगमन संधि 1950 के तहत इस पथ को पड़ोसी राष्ट्र नेपाल को मुख्य मार्ग के रूप में दिया गया है। इस पथ से नेपाल द्वारा देश-विदेश से आयातित 80 प्रतिशत सामान सड़क मार्ग से आता है। इस संबंध में स्थानीय अधिकारी बताते हैं कि फोरलेन सड़क बनाने का प्रस्ताव है, जिससे निर्माण कार्य रूका है। जबकि चेम्बर ऑफ कामर्स के अध्यक्ष रामेश्वर प्रसाद गुप्ता ने उक्त पथ की जर्जर स्थिति पर चिंता व्यक्त करते हुए बरसात के दिनों में आयात-निर्यात प्रभावित होने की संभावना व्यक्त की है।

  2. kaalchintan

    May 12, 2011 at 3:19 pm

    I wonder if this website has any editorial control in place. One does not have issues with opinions expressed in this piece as all are entitled to their own views. But, borrowing a write-up from another so-called news portal which takes up half-an-hour of the reader and seems to be going nowhere, makes little sense. Sloppy writing and editing is a discourtesy to readers, as somebody had remarked.

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