Information officers of both central and state governments must do their utmost to project northeast in a new perspective and showcase the huge cultural and economic potential of the region for the overall development of the country, said  Amit Khare, Secretary, Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Saturday. 

He stated this while interacting with officers of I&B and state information officers of North-East and Kolkata region in the recently concluded two-day Regional Conference of NE Zone and Kolkata region held at Guwahati from 23rd to 24th August.

Khare said that North-East is the gateway to East Asian countries and, therefore, efforts must be made by all including information officers to highlight the cultural and economic potentials of the region so that the entire region is emotionally and economically integrated with the rest of the country. 

“A two-way communication approach needs to be adopted— one, from states to the centre, and the other, from centre to the states,” the secretary underscored and advised officers of Ministry of I&B to closely co-ordinate with state government Information departments and concerned district administration for effective communication. 

The secretary called upon the officers to identify names of both present heroes of all localities of the region and important personalities and involve them in the dissemination of information of important central schemes. 

He further urged them to create good stories on various fields so that the positive achievements of the people are highlighted at national media.  

Interacting with Directors of Information and Public Relations of various states of the region, Khare also took stock of the various administrative lacuna of central establishments and advised the officers of both center and state governments to maintain close co-ordination for effective delivery of communication services. 

Calling upon them to adopt a ‘decentralized and localized communication approach’, Khare also asked the officers to utilize cost-effective communication tools such as social media in a right perspective.

Earlier, DG, NE,  L.R. Vishwanath, briefed the gathering of the minutes of the first day’s deliberations which included among others, need to take messages of development to the last mile, strengthening of infrastructure of field units, development of an integrated portal and the need to transform NE into a vibrant communication system. 

Satyendra Prakash, Director General of Bureau of Outreach and Communication, Ministry of I&B, stressed on the need to connect NE to the mainland by highlighting achievements of people of various sections of the people and its vibrant cultural heritage.  

Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary of the ministry stressed for a ‘citizen-centric communication approach instead of VIP-centric approach’ and advised officers to visit frequently for interaction in order to be able to carry out communication services effectively.   

During the two-day conference, various topics including theme-based and zero budget communication strategies, Integrated Communication Approach of various information agencies, coordination with state directorate officers and a special session on various communication issues were taken up.

Senior officers of the ministry apart from both Kolkata region and state government Information officers of North-East Region participated in the conference.