By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Former IAS officer and Union Secretary Prasanna Mishra asked ‘Shall we buy newspaper to know about Bus routes and or bus services? Mishra’s reaction came following 27 pages advertisement on Laxmi Bus service issued to several newspapers in Odisha by the State Information and Public Relations Department, hit stalls on Wednesday morning. Sources said charges for each page is around Rs 6 Lakh.
‘Today, Lakshmi Bus advertisement is published in almost all the Odia newspapers in total of 27 pages. Advertising cost per page is Rs 6 lakh (could be more or less, I understand from asking), senior Journalist Amaresh Biswal argued.
‘ଦିଲ୍ଲୀରେ ମେଣ୍ଟ ଆଲୋଚନା, ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରେ ଟଙ୍କା ବୃଷ୍ଟି। କିଏ କାହା ଗୋଛି କାଟୁଛି ବୁଝିବା ହେଉ, senior Journalist Debendra Prusty said.
‘ଛବି ଦେଖ, ଗପ ଶୁଣ😂୪୪ ପୃଷ୍ଠା, ୨୬ ପୃଷ୍ଠା ବିଜ୍ଞାପନ!ଲକମି ବସ!, Journalist Sabyasachi Amitav said.
Not only today, since past 2 months, Government is spending crores of rupees on advertisement and many selected media houses regularly getting advertisement in a huge amount due to their close proximity with BJD leaders, those are looking into Party and Government’s media affairs. Political analysts also expressed surprise and argued that the State Government fearing popularity crunch , reaching out to people through newspaper and TV advertisements.
Few weeks ago, senior Journalist Ruben Banerjee had also questioned such publicity campaign by Naveen Patnaik Government in Odisha. Oppositions Congress and BJP have been alleging about huge expenses on publicity and advertisement by the BJD Government but nothing has happened yet and Patnaik Government is all set to break the record of his Delhi counterpart Arvinda Kejriwal, who spent around Rs 1200 Crore on advisement in last 3 years. Kejriwal already faced the heat of Supreme Court on this issue.
