Mumbai: Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government has planned a media blitzkrieg of Rs 84.10 crore to highlight the state government’s schemes and projects.
The general administration department Monday issued a government resolution, a copy of which ThePrint has seen, sanctioning the budget for the special publicity drive. The Rs 84.10 crore are budgeted to be spent on government advertisements over February and March this year.
“The special publicity drive is mainly to give information to people about the schemes, projects, development works taken in 2023-24,” an official from the department told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
ThePrint reached Hemraj Bagul, Director, Directorate General of Information and Public Relations, via calls. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The amount is, however, much lower than what the Shinde government spent in its special publicity drive around the same time last year. Last year, the government had planned a similar drive worth Rs 143 crore, mainly to highlight the state government’s achievements in its first six months.
The Shinde-led government came to power on 30 June, 2022, when Shinde walked out of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government with a majority of MLAs, leading to its fall. He then joined hands with the BJP to form the government with himself as the CM.
The Maharashtra government now comprises the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which joined the ruling coalition in July 2023.
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A separate budget for every medium
Within the Rs 84.10 crore, the Directorate General of Information and Public Relations, which comes under the general administration department, has set aside specific budgets for different media.
The largest share is for outdoor advertising through digital hoardings, sign boards, wraps on trains in the suburban railway, Metro rail systems and public transport buses.
The idea is to also place advertisements on LED screens at railway stations, bus stops, religious places as well as public hospitals. For this, the state government has set aside a budget of Rs 37.55 crore.
Similarly, for print and television advertising, the government has set aside Rs 20 crore each. This includes placing advertisements with Doordarshan, Akashvani, as well as private television channels, FM radio, community radio, cinema halls and so on. The government has also set aside Rs 5 crore on social and digital media, and Rs 75.50 lakh has been set aside for the creation of these advertisements.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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