The advertisement allocation to vernacular print media from Information and Broadcasting Department has been declining.
The clause 26 of the print media advertisement policy, while mandates that the Government should spent 35 per cent of total allocations in the regional language print media, it is observed that the same is not followed. On the other hand, Hindi print media which is supposed to receive 35 per cent of allocation, as per the same policy, has witnessed an upward surge and the figure stands at 42.61 per cent.
As per the policy, the Hindi and regional print media while should receive 35 per cent each of the total allocated amount, the English print media should get the rest 30 per cent. However, it is leant that Odisha gets around 3.6 per cent of the total funds allocated towards print media for regional languages.
On the other hand, Delhi gets around 20.75 per cent although Odisha houses about 3.4 per cent population of the India against Delhi’s 1.3 per cent.
The facts were revealed by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting when it replied to a question raised by Baleswar MP RK Jena in the Parliament recently.