Mumbai: The Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government has planned a special publicity campaign running across several platforms to the tune of Rs 143 crore to highlight its schemes, projects, and achievements of its first six months in office.
The campaign, according to a government resolution issued by the general administration department, will run till 31 March and will involve placing government ads across all media — right from front-page and jacket advertisements in newspapers and television commercials to hoardings at bus stops, railway stations, Metro stations, and airports.
ThePrint has a copy of the resolution, which was issued on 7 February.
“This drive has been planned mainly to showcase this government’s work in its first six months. All governments keep having drives like these on different scales,” an official from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) told ThePrint.
An official from the Directorate General of Information and Public Relations told ThePrint: “This is all part of the department’s advance planning. We keep having special campaigns on different occasions and themes too such as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav or on Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birth anniversary. These drives are important for people to know the government’s schemes.”
The present government came to power on 30 June last year, after Eknath Shinde led a rebellion to topple the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government — an alliance comprising the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress. Shinde’s faction, a breakaway group of 40 of the Shiv Sena’s 56 MLAs in the assembly, then formed an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government.
While Maharashtra will be polling in 2024, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election is scheduled this year.
Maharashtra Directorate General of Information and Public Relations (DGIPR) Jayashree Bhoj did not respond to ThePrint’s calls and text messages. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
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Fifteen schemes, projects in focus
According to the resolution, the Maharashtra government will focus on 15 schemes and projects across departments. Each of these, according to the DGIPR’s calculations, will require an approximate budget of Rs 9.57 crore for the creation and dissemination of advertisements related to the schemes.
The 15 schemes and projects include the ‘missing link project’ for the expansion of the Mumbai-Pune expressway, the Sewri-Nhava Sheva Mumbai Trans Harbour Link project, Metro rail projects across Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur, the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway, basic infrastructure in public health, and schemes related to senior citizens, physically challenged, farmers, skill development, education, irrigation, relief and rehabilitation.
As part of the campaign, the Shinde-led government will place full-page advertisements in 268 newspapers across different languages. Fourteen Marathi television channels — five news-related and nine entertainment channels — will run 30-second government advertisements six times a day for eight days.
Similarly, Doordarshan’s Sahyadri, a Marathi TV channel, and All India Radio will also play these government advertisements for eight days. Besides, the state government will also place 30-second audio jingles across 60 FM radio stations.
According to the government resolution, the Shinde government also plans to tap the 30-odd community radio stations in Maharashtra.
In addition, such government advertisements will cover billboards at bus stations in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, and Nagpur.
Besides these, the government advertisements will feature on LED screens at the Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur airports, state bus stands, and railway stations across the state. It will also run campaigns on social media for about 30-40 days through paid postings, OTT platforms, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, among others.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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