Activities

Activities of The Department

The Information & Public Relations Department serves as a link between people and the Government. This Department not only informs the public on the plans, policies and Programmes of the Government, but also works to ensure people's participation in the successful implementation of different developmental Programmes and schemes. To implement these Programmes and to make them people-oriented, the Department also functions at District and Sub-divisional levels.

The Organizational Set-up

The Department was created originally as a part of the Home Department and was named as Home (Public Relations) Department. Subsequently it was separated from the Home Department on the 8th July 1978 and started functioning as an independent Department of the State Govt. in the name of Information & Public Relations Department. At present 32 Publicity Districts (Including Bhubaneswar & Rourkela) each headed by District Information & Public Relations Officer are functioning under the administrative control of this Department. There are 3 Deputy Directors to supervise the work of D.I.P.R.O.s at 3 Revenue Divisional Head Quarters i.e. Cuttack, Sambalpur & Berhampur respectively.
The total staff strength of the Department is 1029 out of which Group-A officers are 21, Group-B officers are 97, Group-C personnel are 531 and Group-D personnel are 380.

Television News Production

The T.V. Unit of this Department has been producing news items of day to day Programmes of VIPs, VVIPs, news capsules of important events, tele-documentaries on various developmental activities of the Govt. and ensuring their telecast on various electronic media channels including Door-darshan. During the year 2003-04 this unit has covered 1582 news items on various developmental activities and Programmes of Govt., out of which 1555 news items were telecast on the regional news bulletin from DDK, Bhubaneswar and 24 were telecast in the regional weekly programme Bichitra. Besides, following tele-documentaries have been prepared and telecast.

A Patriotic song (Bande Utkal Janani) on Utkal Divas.
Flood-2003 (English & Oriya)
A Patriotic song (Dhana Dhanye Puspa Bhara……) on 15th August
Sisira Saras
Mission Shakti
I.I.T.F-2004
Patriotic Song (Tunga Sikhari Chula) on 26th January,2004

Photo Service

The Photo Unit of this Department provides essential support to publicity Programmes. This helps in keeping records of important events. Besides, it releases photographs to different print media organizations daily on various day-to-day Programmes of the VIPs, VVIPs and other important Govt. Programmes, pertaining to Government. It provides support for publications of Booklets, Folders, Posters etc and preparation of exhibits by the Information & Public Relations Department.During the year 2003-04 this unit has been modernized with Digital Set-up having Internet facilities. Now photographs are being released to different media organizations through Internet. Besides, action has been initiated to have a separate studio. During this period this Unit has covered 664 numbers of Programmes through manual & digital systems and produced 9155 numbers of photographs and supplied to above mentioned purpose.

Film Unit

Film is one of the powerful Media of Mass Communication through which message of Government and achievements made on different developmental Programmes in the State can be carried out and conveyed to the illiterate mass living in the rural areas. During this year following documentary films produced by this unit namely:

Four years achievements of the Government.
AIDS (For Health Deptt.)
Kavi Jayadev (For Culture Deptt.)
Makara Lekhichhi Patara (For Health Deptt.)
CSSM (Surakhita Matrutwa O' Sisu Surakshya )- (For Health Deptt.)

Documentary Films under Preparation:

Industrial Image of Orissa
Sanitation
Drinking water
Life and work of Abhimanyu Samant Singhar
Eradication of poverty
Cotton cultivation
Ratoon Management of Sugarcane
Rehabilitation of bonded labours
Samant Chandra SekharBesides, a full-length feature film on Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das is under preparation.

Community Viewing Unit

A Community viewing unit has been functioning in this Deptt. Radio Inspectors are attending the work relating to the installation and repair of TVs provided to different establishments. They also attend the recording of the important proceedings of the programs including Assembly proceedings. The government under C.V.Scheme has provided 972 T.V. sets to different Educational Institutions and Information centres of the State free of cost, 857 T.V. sets to different Gram Panchayats on cost-sharing basis i.e. 75 percent cost borne by the State Government and the rest 25 percent by the Grama Panchayats concerned.

Audio Visual Publicity Unit

An Audio-Visual Publicity Unit is functioning in the Department. Apart from organizing film shows at the field level, this unit makes arrangements of the Public Address System at the meeting places.

All Govt. Advertisements released by this Department through different Newspapers and Periodicals have become effective. Besides Classified Advertisements such as Tender Notices, Quotation Call Notices, Advertisements for recruitments and Notices for admission to the Educational Institutions etc. are published in newspapers through this Department for the general information of the public. Tender notices and other quotations of different Corporations and State Government Undertakings are also routed through this Department for publication, During the reported year 1587 Classified Advertisements 1146 Land Acquisition Advertisements and 166 Display Advertisements have been issued.

Research, Reference, and Training

The Research and Reference Unit of this department collects background materials, up-to-date facts and figures from various departments of the Government and keeps them intact for future reference. This unit also collects and preserves basic information through newspapers clippings, articles from standard research Journals and informative literature published by Government and makes information available to the research scholars, writers and intellectuals as and when required. The Department also maintains a reference library, which preserves informative books, maps, publicity booklets, features etc.During the year 2003-04, this unit has prepared an "Orissa Reference Annual", a reference book first of its kind.

Oriya Translator's Unit

It is a feedback gathering mechanism to apprise His Excellency the Governor of Orissa, Hon'ble Chief Minister of Orissa, Chief Secretary of Orissa, Secretaries and Special secretaries of all the Departments regarding news, views, reactions published in Oriya Dailies. In extending its activities, the set-up of Oriya translator to govt. is presently engaged in gathering daily feedback from Internet news and submitting the same to Hon'ble Chief Minister and also feeding Press Handouts into the Govt. of Orissa Website. During the year 2003-04, 2545 Press Round ups, 250 Internet News briefs, 195 news Items have been released.

Information Centre-cum-reading Room

Information Centre-cum-Reading Rooms have been opened in Urban and Rural areas that play a significant role in disseminating information and enriching the intellectual growth of the society through books, magazines, newspapers and other informative literatures. Besides, TVs and Radios have been supplied to the Information Centers. At present 85 Information Centre-cum-Reading Rooms are functioning throughout the State including one at the State Capital and one each at New Delhi and Kolkata. A sum of TRs.8609 has been estimated for Information Centre-cum-Reading Rooms during the Financial year 2004-05.

Exhibition

Exhibitions on plans, Programmes, policies and achievements of the Govt. are organized in rural & urban areas of the State in order to create awareness among the people. The exhibition also includes materials on Orissan art, culture, tradition, handlooms, handicrafts, agriculture, industries etc.. This unit participates in I.I.T.F, New Delhi every year. During the current financial year eight exhibitions including IITF-2003 at New Delhi have been organized by this Department.

Special Celebration

The Department organizes Special Celebration like Independence Day, Republic Day, Orissa Day, Gandhi Jayanti, Birth & Death Anniversaries of eminent persons, National Press Day at the State, District & Sub-divisional headquarters. During the year, 30 such special celebrations have been organized. Besides, Information Centers are opened during Ratha Yatra at Puri. Orissa Tableau participated in the Republic Day Parade-2004 at New Delhi. Under inter State cultural exchange programme, for the first time this Department organized Malayalam Film & Cultural festival at Bhubaneswar and participated in Oriya Film & Cultural Programmes at Thiruvantpuram & Kerala.

Song and Drama

This is an effective medium of publicity. The traditional folk dance like, Palla, Daskathia, Ghoda nacho, Street play and Musical programmes highlighting plans, Programmes and policies of the Government are organized by this Department in rural and urban areas of the State. During this year 1530 nos. of Programmes have been organized by this Department.

Computerization Scheme

To make media coverage more effective and purposeful with regard to dissemination of up-to-date information , this Department has taken initiative to computerize the District Public Relation Offices. During the year 2003-04, 15 district offices at Angul, Sundargarh, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Berhampur (Chatrapur), Jagatsinghpur, Kendra Para, Koraput, Sambalpur, Puri, Rourkela, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Nabarangpur & Keonjhar have been provided with computer facilities. Besides, there is a computerized system operating at the State headquarters.