AAP government may rope in pvt firm to handle media affairs

In an attempt to bring in more professionalism to handle media affairs, the AAP government has initiated a process to hire a communications consultant firm. The main job of the firm will be to engage citizens effectively in two-way communication with the administration and to hold periodic stakeholder consultations for proper feedback in formulating policies and schemes. The firm will have to ensure that maximum people get the benefit of the government schemes and programmes.

The firm will also be required to communicate with different media verticals through its pool of experts. Besides the consultation firm, the AAP government has also started looking for two senior information officers and four information officers to handle day-to-day affairs of the media. While the senior information officers will be paid about '49,000 every month, the information officers will get a monthly package of about '31,000. At present, the directorate of information and publicity division of the government has six information officers, one deputy director, one additional director and a secretary-level officer as the head of the division. As per convention, the information officers were earlier appointed through the Union Public Service Commission.

The AAP government has been very keen on highlighting its schemes and programmes through multi-media platforms, including aggressive advertising on TV, print and outdoor media. The government had earmarked '526 crore in the last fiscal for its publicity blitz. Later, it first scaled down to '400 crore and subsequently reduced it further to '370 crore. The government was, however, able to spend only about '100 crore. Now, it has earmarked '200 crore for publicity for the current fiscal.

As the AAP government has been keen to reach out to people for day-to-day coverage of its schemes and programmes in print, electronic and social media, it has decided to bring in more professional hands to streamline its communication wing. The primary aim of the consultancy firm will not only be to create awareness about the government’s schemes and policies, but also to seek regular feedback from citizens on pressing issues. The firm will be required to deliver a strategy and communication plan so that citizens can be involved in day-to-day governance.

Once the firm is finalised by the government, it will be required to have a team of consultants comprising a communications expert as the team leader, communications adviser, digital and social media expert, editorial and content expert and media management expert.

The team leader will be required to have 10 years experience in mass communication with B.A. (Hons.) as minimum qualification. The leader’s main job will be to lead the team and coordinate the consultancy in qualitatively and timely manner. The team leader will be directly responsible for coordination with the government departments.