Director Information reviews advertisement distribution, payment status

Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Feb 27: As a part of the Government’s initiative to streamline the advertisement distribution process and ensure judicious allotment of advertisements to the empanelled newspapers/periodicals, Director Information, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary convened a review meeting at the office of the Joint Director Information here today.
Outgoing Joint Director Information Kashmir, Tassaduq Hussain Mir, newly posted Joint Director Information Kashmir, Zahoor Ahmad Mir, Deputy Director Information (PR) Kashmir, Farooq Ahmad Baba and other officers and officials of the Joint Directorate of Information Kashmir were present at the meeting.
Speaking at the meeting, the Director Information emphasized on regular outflow of payments from the department to the newspapers/periodicals on account of advertisement charges to avoid piling up of liabilities. He said the Directorate of Information has for the current year released Rs 16.83 crore till date to the Joint Directors of Information Kashmir/Jammu for payment of advertisement bills out of the total annual budget of around Rs 30 crore.
“We are trying our best to ensure that the newspapers and periodicals are not put to any inconvenience on account of payment of advertisement bills,” he said and added that various tangible initiatives have been taken of late to ensure utmost transparency in allotment of advertisements and regular release of payments to the newspapers and periodicals.
“We are putting in place a plan of action for the next fiscal to ensure release of payment on account of advertisements to the newspapers and periodicals on monthly basis,” Dr Shahid said, adding that as the Government has already released 50% of allotted budget for the financial year 2017-18, it should enable the department to make the payments to newspapers/periodicals regularly on monthly basis in the next fiscal.
“Ensure that all the previous liabilities of the newspapers/ periodicals on account of advertisements are cleared by March ending this year so that we can begin with a clean slate and zero liability for the next fiscal,” the Director Information told the officers present at the meeting.
He said the department is already in the process of putting in place a comprehensive and transparent advertisement distribution mechanism by classifying the empanelled newspapers/ periodicals in the different categories, in tune with the guidelines laid down in the Advertisement Policy-2016.

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