DNA EXCLUSIVE: Govt wants ministries to route ads only through official channel, cites extra expense

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting wants all ministries to route their advertisements in print media only through government's official channel Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), and not directly, citing "extra expenditure".

The ministry has also prepared a list of last six months of 2017 to monitor such advertisements which were directly given to newspapers and the report shows that the cost incurred this way was "huge".

A circular sent to all ministries by I&B Ministry recently, read, "Despite specific directions of strict compliance of the Advertisement policy, Ministries/ Departments and organisations are issuing their advertisements in print media directly without routing them through DAVP. Issuing advertisements without routing them through DAVP is not only in contravention of the existing policy of the government of India, but also results in extra expenditure."

"Minister for Textile and I&B has emphasised for strict compliance of the government's directions with regard to publication of advertisements," it added.

All ministries have been asked to frame their policy accordingly and make sure that no advertisements go without being routed through DAVP.

DAVP is government's official tool for publicity. It is the nodal agency to undertake multi-media advertising and publicity for various Ministries and Departments of Government of India. Some of the autonomous bodies also route their advertisements through DAVP. As a service agency, it works to communicate at grass roots level on behalf of various central government ministries.

Government has also increased the allocation for DAVP in this year's Union Budget. Under the head of publicity, the allocation has been increased from Rs 155 crore in the year 2017-18 to Rs 180 crore in 2018-19, and a major share of it has gone to DAVP.