Mumbai: Forward of the Lok Sabha election, the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra authorities has deliberate a media blitzkrieg of Rs 84.10 crore to focus on the state authorities’s schemes and initiatives.
The final administration division Monday issued a authorities decision, a duplicate of which ThePrint has seen, sanctioning the funds for the particular publicity drive. The Rs 84.10 crore are budgeted to be spent on authorities commercials over February and March this yr.
“The particular publicity drive is principally to provide data to individuals concerning the schemes, initiatives, growth works taken in 2023-24,” an official from the division advised ThePrint on situation of anonymity.
ThePrint reached Hemraj Bagul, Director, Directorate Normal of Data and Public Relations, through calls. This report might be up to date if and when a response is obtained.
The quantity is, nevertheless, a lot decrease than what the Shinde authorities spent in its particular publicity drive across the similar time final yr. Final yr, the federal government had deliberate an analogous drive price Rs 143 crore, primarily to focus on the state authorities’s achievements in its first six months.
The Shinde-led authorities got here to energy on 30 June, 2022, when Shinde walked out of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi authorities with a majority of MLAs, resulting in its fall. He then joined palms with the BJP to type the federal government with himself because the CM.
The Maharashtra authorities now contains the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Get together (NCP), which joined the ruling coalition in July 2023.
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A separate funds for each medium
Inside the Rs 84.10 crore, the Directorate Normal of Data and Public Relations, which comes beneath the overall administration division, has put aside particular budgets for various media.
The biggest share is for outside promoting by means of digital hoardings, signal boards, wraps on trains within the suburban railway, Metro rail programs and public transport buses.
The concept is to additionally place commercials on LED screens at railway stations, bus stops, spiritual locations in addition to public hospitals. For this, the state authorities has put aside a funds of Rs 37.55 crore.
Equally, for print and tv promoting, the federal government has put aside Rs 20 crore every. This contains putting commercials with Doordarshan, Akashvani, in addition to non-public tv channels, FM radio, group radio, cinema halls and so forth. The federal government has additionally put aside Rs 5 crore on social and digital media, and Rs 75.50 lakh has been put aside for the creation of those commercials.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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