At the very outset, event management companies or organisations are urban centric. Such bodies do not have professional expertise in dissemination of information and publicity, much less necessary infrastructure for a public information campaign of such a magnitude. At its best, event management companies have expertise in managing packaged infrastructural facilities for conference, seminar, entertainment, catering, for such organisations or individuals or party with nil facilities for self corporate communications or public relations set ups, marriage ceremony and other related activities. As for issuing press release or publicity programme such organisations do hire retired journalists to bell the cat. In fact, event management organisations are the real culprit for paid news and publicity. It is authoritatively learnt they pioneered paid news and publicity, which is now widely used by political leaders, parties and corporate sector. Event management companies, as such, do not have expertise for publicity and multi-lingual multimedia campaign.

Moreover, publicity campaign in rural, tribal, hilly, backward and mofussil areas is a complex and difficult job because of prevailing variable sensitivities of the people in each area with varying dialects, lingual nuances, conventions and cultural quotients, indicating requirement of different encapsulated publicity material for different areas. Surely, such a difficult task cannot be a cup of tea for event management organisations.

It appears to be the handiwork of urban rats out to gobble up allocated sum of Rs.49 crores in the Eleventh Five Year Plan and still higher amount from nodal Ministries of Rural Development, Agriculture, Health & Family Welfare, Urban Development, Housing, Employment & Poverty Alleviation and others. PIB's move appears to be a part of the prevailing collusive system where every body colludes with every other to defraud the nation. In the process, data are fudged and make-believe paper works done to explain the targets achieved.

To give shape to such fraud, two retired information officials with little professional communications skill and expertise have been appointed as consultants by Principal Director General (Media & Communications), showing beyond doubt the likely fate of the national public information campaign. It also smacks of parochial favouritism.

If the UPA Government is determined to launch a national public information campaign on its flagship development programmes, it needs to take immediate steps on a war footing to strengthen combination of Field Publicity and Songs and Drama Division for media outreach to the people in their own idioms, revive multi-lingual Wall Newspaper (single page news nuggets with visuals), presently very much in vogue in China. A sample Chinese wall newspaper was brought stealthily by G.S.Mishra, a retired senior PIB official, then in Field Publicity, from NEFA following the 1962 Sino-Indian Conflict, which the then Government lapped up and started its own with Mishra in Photo & Features Unit of the Bureau with then DPIO De Souza at the helm. It was very successful. With a non-functional Secretary (Information & Broadcasting) and an inert Principal Information Officer then, the publication of multi-lingual wall newspaper was stopped abruptly because of their personal whims to carry on such onerous tasks. Introduce a dedicated multi-lingual development news bulletin on AIR and Door Darshan including their regional and branch stations. Strengthen regional and branch offices of PIB to make multi-lingual publicity meaningful. Let PDG(M&C) hold monthly meeting of PIB regional offices and interact with media persons over dinner region wise to enlist their cooperation as used to be the case earlier up to 1970s. Strengthen DAVP to make multi-lingua paid advertising campaign by it nationwide effective. At its most, PIB may like to use the services of some reputed ad agencies for a few slogans to be used to create public awareness of flagship programmes of the Government. Involve Panchayati Raj institutions in the reach-out of the revived multi-lingual Wall Newspaper to enlist participation of people at the grass roots level to make the public information campaign successful. Utilise services of two distinguished retired senior PIB officials, S.C.Kackatwam and G.S.Mishra with proven credentials and blue professional communications skill to make the programme useful and effective. FM Radio and Community Radio, which are a big hit with the people, may also be used for public information campaign.

If the public information campaign is to be made meaningful, the thought out modus operandi involving event management companies will have to be avoided!