Information service officials reshuffled

A number of officials of the information service cadre were transferred or promoted in various ministries and departments by the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) on Wednesday.

Incidentally, both the MIB and the defence ministry named two different officials to carry out the role of information official in the defence ministry. While the MIB announced Nidhi Pandey, an additional director general in the Press Information Bureau to carry out the publicity work, the ministry of defence announced Swaranashree Rao Rajashekar of the Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS). However, there was no clarity on what roles the two officials would handle.

These officials of group A Indian Information Services (IIS) are attached to various ministries and departments of the government and carry out the publicity of government programmes and policy.

Wednesday’s orders come close on the heels of a similar exercise carried out in November, when 24 postings were announced by the ministry.

These postings were, however, opposed by the IIS officers association union, alleging that they were carried out without consulting the heads of the media units.

The association has complained to the MIB that some senior officials have been transferred to stations where the posts allotted to them do not exist, while some have been transferred to places where multiple officials have been designated the same role without any clarity on the allocation of work.

They had pointed out that the postings would hamper the information dissemination through government’s broadcast divisions such as the press information bureau, the directorate of audio visual publicity (DAVP) and Doordarshan.

NEWDELHI: