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  India   Akalis launch huge PR effort to boost government image

Akalis launch huge PR effort to boost government image

AGE CORRESPONDENT
Published : Jun 29, 2016, 1:16 am IST
Updated : Jun 29, 2016, 1:16 am IST

Under constant attack from political opponents over the drug menace and other issues, the Akali government has come out with a massive advertisement campaign to counter the onslaught and restore the i

Under constant attack from political opponents over the drug menace and other issues, the Akali government has come out with a massive advertisement campaign to counter the onslaught and restore the image of the government. The government has come out with 50 vans named “Punjab da Parkash”, which will be been sent out to different parts of the state to highlight the achievements of the state government in the last nine years.

The Akali government has hired a Madhya Pradesh based PR agency named Aditya, which will do the branding. These 50 vans, equipped with a laptop, LFD and generator set would cover Punjab villages in next six months, highlighting government achievements in the fields of education, agriculture and business.

Punjab Information & PR minister, Bikram Singh Majithia, who flagged off the vans said, “The aim was to highlight the achievements of the government from making state power surplus to creating record road infrastructure”. He said the vans would convey a message about Punjab and Punjabiat. A religious film “Chaar Sahibzada” would also be shown through these vans. However, he said he had no idea about the budget for the whole PR exercise.

Under constant attack for failing to check the drug menace in the state, the Akali’s have come out with strategy by saying the drug problem in Punjab is hyped. Advertisements are featured on local FM channels on which people would come on and say they have no drug addicts in their family and that Punjab has progressed and to tarnish the image of Punjabis as drug addicts is a conspiracy.

According to Akali Dal MP, Prem Singh Chandu Majra, “A systematic method is used to tarnish the image of Punjabi youth as addicts. The random figure that 70 % of our youth are addicts is bogus. Every year there is an all India level inter-university athletic meet in Punjab in which the Punjabi university, Patiala has been bagging the first place and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar is coming second.”

Location: India, Chandigarh