The government of Rajasthan and its Department of Information and Public Relations primarily have set new dimensions in fighting the pandemic
In the ongoing fight against Coronavirus, all departments of Rajasthan Government played a vital role. The main Corona warriors were doctors, paramedical staff, police, district administration, revenue officers, teachers, sanitation staff, media personnel newspaper hawkers, NGOs and philanthropists.
When people of the entire state were sitting at home, scared of coming in contact with the virus, these corona warriors were busy treating people (doctors and paramedical staff), maintaining law and order (police), making people abide by the lockdown guidelines and helping people by addressing their problems (administrative personnel, teachers, revenue officers and others), maintaining cleanliness (sanitation staff), delivering news through newspapers and electronic media and distributing newspapers (media personnel and hawkers), helping people stuck due to lockdown by providing food and water (NGOs) and helping the society by providing food, sanitisers and masks (philanthropists).
In the government departments, Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) was silently playing its role and was keeping people of the state and media informed about the developments of the state government including the announcements and decisions through various platforms.
According to DIPR Minister, Dr Raghu Sharma, the department was quite alert and gave every piece of government information to the people through press releases, advertisements in newspapers, social media posts and electronic media through scripts on television channels and jingles on FM radios.
The department also arranged 11 video conferences (VCs) of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot with media and his interviews with national and regional media including print and electronic. Media veterans believe that 11 daily VCs with media is perhaps a historic initiative.
After the first Corona positive case was reported in Jaipur on March 2, the DIPR immediately sprang to action to make people aware about this pandemic. Till now, more than 50 advertisements have been published in newspapers starting from March 5. “The decisions taken by Gehlot were published so that the people get to know about them and benefit from various schemes announced during the lockdown,” informed DIPR Commissioner and Special Secretary, Mahendra Soni.
It is notable that Rajasthan was the first state to announce lockdown from March 22 and since then people were kept informed about the routine decisions.
Some of the major decisions and announcements include: only chemists, provision/grocery and vegetables and fruits shops to remain open during lockdown; distribution of free wheat to National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries; distribution of free packets of food items to daily wagers, street vendors and other needy people who do not come under the ambit of NFSA; food for all as no poor should sleep hungry; one-time assistance of ` 2500 to 33 lakh needy people; important helpline numbers at the state level and district level for assistance to people during the Corona pandemic; payment of outstanding pension up to March to more than 78 lakh social security pensioners including the precise communication of vital information during the entire period of lockdown 1.0 to 4.0.
“As per the commissioner and special secretary, the department substantially enhanced the activities on social media and was continuously updating its website, facebook, twitter and instagram accounts with latest information, decisions and announcements that helped the general public and media. As a result, the followers on twitter touched 2 lakh. The timely decisions taken by Gehlot were praised by one and all in the state as well as the country,” he added.