This seems to be the strategy adopted by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar. In the last six years it has given so much to the media-houses in the name of advertisements that they can not open their mouths to speak anything. It is another thing that someone may ask: is the media in Bihar as immature as a child and can be hoodwinked into silence by a mouthful of candy?

Another instance of what is now called media-management by the state government has come to light. BiharTimes has exclusive access to the advertisements given to different newspapers and television channels of Bihar in the last one year. It was procured by an RTI activist, Purander Sawaran, from the office of Information & Public Relation Department of Bihar Govt.

This year the state government has given as high as Rs 284,786,399 in the form of advertisements to newspapers and television channels. The figure is much too higher than the earlier years.

This huge amount has been disbursed notwithstanding the fact that between September and November 2010 the state government was not in position to give any advertisement because of the election. During that period the advts. by political parties and govt. undertakings are not included in this list.

The strange aspect of the whole ad-story is that as high as Rs 10,12,13,999 (about 35 per cent) has been taken away by one newspaper, Dainik Hindustan while Urdu daily Quami Tanzeem got ad worth about  Rs one crore–– Rs 98,72,810 to be precise––which is slightly less than the Times of India and Economic Times Rs 1,13,52,332 and much more than Hindustan Times Rs 58,63,454 not to speak of other premier dailies.

Dainik Jagaran with Rs 5,33,68,449 crore stood second. What is strange is that Panchjanya, the weekly mouthpiece of the RSS––the cultural organization of the BJP––got advertisement worth just Rs 80,000 in the whole financial year 2010-11.

Hindi and Urdu dailies got much preference so far the distribution of the bounty from the state government is concerned. If Quami Tanzeem with just limited circulation can get such huge amount of advertisement the lesser circulated dailies are not too far behind. Farooqui Tanzeem (Rs 62,35,314), Pindaar (Rs 44,11,220), Inqilab-e-Jadeed  (Rs 20,57,062), Pyari Urdu (Rs 16,30,667), Sangam Rs 13,80,890 and Mosalas (Rs 4,21,899) are are other Urdu dailies from Patna, which got big advertisements. Halaat-e-Bihar, which is published from Samastipur got advertisement worth Rs 6,67,867.

There were obvious reasons for showing so much generosity towards Urdu dailies. The ruling NDA wanted to win over the Muslims, especially on the eve of the Assembly election. An official formerly associated with the PRD told BiharTimes that couple of years back newspaper like Quami Tanzeem used to get more advertisement than Dainik Hindustan.

Senior free lance Urdu journalist, Naiyer Fatmi, who was formerly associated with the Quami Awaz, feels that the latest trend to give so much government advertisements amount to curbing the freedom of Press. The problem with the Urdu and small Hindi newspapers is that they do not belong to the corporate houses. Therefore, they can easily be controlled by the state government for obvious reasons. This is a dangerous trend. So far the amount of advertisement is concerned it may vary as it depends on the rate fixed by the DAVP, he told BiharTimes.

It needs to be recalled that a huge amount was spent on advertisement on June 9 last year. The reason put forward was the completion of four and a half years of the first Nitish government. The truth is that the four-and-a-half years was completed on April 24, 2010 and not on June 9. The purpose was obvious to give advertisements worth crores to all the newspapers and channels very close to the announcement of the Assembly election. So a substantial amount of Rs 28.4 crore had been spent between April and August 2010, that is, before the announcement of the election.

So far other Hindi dailies are concerned Aaj got Rs 1,30,54,899, Prabhat Khabar Rs 1,10,08,037, Pratyush Nav Bihar Rs 30,29,027 and Rashtriya Sahara Rs 68,88,915. What is strange is that little known Pratah Kamal from Muzaffarpur  and Nai Baat from Bhagalpur got Rs 39,63,519 and Rs 22,11,150 respectively.

English newspapers, which have no edition from Patna are also the beneficiaries. Delhi-based Mail Today got Rs 7,07,635 while The Pioneer and Indian Express got Rs 7,12,994 and Rs 5,95,800 respectively. Mind it the boss of The Pioneer is none else but the BJP MP of Rajya Sabha, Chandan Mitra while the brother of a senior PRD official in Bihar is at a top post in the editorial of Mail Today.

Earlier there used to be no state government advertisement for TV channels. However, the Nitish Kumar government some times back changed the policy.

ETV Bihar got Rs 1,04,25,178, Mahua Rs 98,77,537, IBN Rs 1,46,689, Sahara TV Rs 30,19,556 Sadhna TV Rs 28,83,347 and little known Saubhagya Mithila Rs 27,795.

BrandBihar.com, a news portal got Rs 56,666 while Radio Mirchi Rs 9,41,000.

The Week magazine of south was not left behind. It got Rs 15,20,000.

In all 39 advertisements were given to electronic media and  12,930 to print.

As per the RTI document of 2008-09 the state government had spent around Rs 25.25 crore on advertisement of both print and electronic media. In 2009-10 till February 28, 2010, around Rs 19.66 crore was spent on advertisements.

What is strange is that in 2005-06 (Nitish Kumar came in power on November 24, 2005) the state spending on advertisements was just around Rs 4.49 crore.

Earlier government advertisements were just confined to tenders, not to highlight development of the state government.  Only on August 15 and January 26 government used to give advertisements highlighting its achievements. Half page or full page photographs of ministers rarely appeared on govt. advts.

In 1990s some central ministries, for example, Railways used to give big advertisements. Ram Vilas Paswan, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad used to give big advertisements to the newspapers of Bihar.

However, the Bihar government advertisement jumped by around Rs 90 lakh in the very first year of the Nitish government. It was Rs 5.4 crore in 2006-07. In 2007-08, it almost got doubled and reached Rs 9.65 crore, an increase of Rs 4.25 crore. It was around this time that electronic media got empanelled by the Public Relations Department.

It needs to be recalled that on November 24, 2009, that is on the eve of completion of four years of the Nitish government, in a single day advertisements worth Rs 1.15 crore were given to 24 different national as well as regional dailies.

Comment

comments...

The Finance Minister of Bihar should be sacked immediately for misusing the state fund.
Few days back I saw Nitesh Kumar on TV cursing congressing government of centre for not providing enough funds for the development of Bihar. He was mentioning “Bihar Bhagwaan ki dharti hai” (perhaps he was referring to Budha, Mahvira etc.) “Dilli mein Congress ki sakar ko bhugatna padega” he was proclaiming.
On what basis he curses the central government. These leaders have no shame at all. Nitesh Kumar you are not different than your predecessors. Alas you should have spent this fund for opening an engineering institute or a hospital. Merely distributing the state fund to media to keep their mouth shut;
Haider
Qatar

-------------------------------------------------

I think this sheer wastage of electorate money.As Mr CM knowing that bihar needs Power/Electricity badly and he is throwing money on blowing own trumpet,there is no need to publicisizing through media,focus on good governance and this would come in its own way.

Government needs to set its priority and focus on the Delivery mechanism,announcing popular policy is of no use and time bound delivery matters a lot and in fact need of Bihar's common man.

Sunil Singh

.................................................

Few facts or Shall we say the behavioral aspect of our savoir C.M

· He is autocrat
· He likes people praising him all the time
· He has feudal approach of taking unilateral decisions and behaving like a king (janta darbaar is an example)
· He is hungry for publicity like no other politician in India..

Why is Nitish national media blue eyed boy? Because he feeds them well and in turn gets all praise songs… on the flip side media houses now days also have turned out to be business unit working for absolute profit only and hence all reporters are NO MORE journalists only, they are business representatives for their respective bosses, therefore writing praise song for NITISH in Hindu would ensure that Tamil daily gets revenue from Bihar state (Irony)…

Chief minister of a state which has population of 9+ crore helds JANTA DURBAAR (is it complex character or identity crisis) in democratic state- Instead of improving delivery system this fellow believes in becoming Bhagwaan for few and most interestingly ALL MEDIA HOUSES ACROSS INDIA have publicized it like the best way forward shown by any CM till date…..

In today’s times when film and all other awards have become one night event for TV channels and already lost credibility (be it for filmfare or any other award), our CM finds it achievement for estate when he is awarded best politician by news channels (basis few thousand urban vote) and GOES mad about publicizing same thru Posters, banners , outdoors and what not (I am sure outdoor spend have not been taken in the given figure)……

To be fair to process, its perfectly alright to advertize your achievements but mind you ACHIEVEMENTS …..

Anyways we cant say much…..because he is democratically elected CM and can do whatever he wants to, after all he is created respect for Bihari’s (Chandrgupta, Chanakya, Budha, mahavira …and now NITISHA J )

Randheer Jha
Madhubani (currently in Delhi)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Very rightly Mr. Jha pointed out the need of transparency in advt. given to different Media houses. They should make public declaration preferably on front page how much they received from govt. and Govt. too prominently post the money given to different media organisations on their web site. Afte rall its public money. People could know about advertorials and integrity of different media houses. Media has an important role in our democracy and we only educated mass of our state can make them accountable along with govt.

Vivek

.............................................................

The reporter appears to prove the point that the money spent is disproportionately high and the allocation between the various papers and channels are discriminately .Further it also appears to drive the point that many papers have received high amount which does not justify based on their circulation .

I would like to mention that comparison with other state governments of Bihar's size must be made before concluding that the amount is very high . The article does not provide the same .

Second , some newspapers having wide circulation and viewrship is likely to get higher share . Some exceptions are noted ,though .

What is most surprising that why the media in BIHAR cant not come out with a code on advertisement acceptance policy and also force governent to clearly define a standard code of practice .

In the absence of the code from media and government issue is lost and public has no clue if the money is really wasted or the government has rightfully used the advertisement to make its people aware of its policies etc to ensure they can demand its implementation or deviation from the adminsiatration .

Hope any article is written should not give indication of biasedness pro or anti governemnt . It must be only pro masses.

A JHA
MADHUBANI

-------------------------------------------------------------

I am thankful to Bihar Times who has published it in details. I have sent the copy received by PRD to all media houses specially Patna based, but no has guts to publish it. Department does not bother to post the details on official websites. There are many computers in PRD but the department has sent the letter in hand written and in unclear writing. This is not the single story, I provide you another appointment manipulation of APD in BSACS . Once again I thank to readers who posted their valuable comments.

Purander Sawarnya
RTI activist, Patna

----------------------------------------------------------------------

What the PRD has very kindly furnished is the sum of money released directly from the department. There are other organizations like the milk federation, the bridge construction corporation, the Bihar State Electricity Board, the various health societies, and many others who have independent budgetary heads for advertisements. if you pool in their contribution to the upkeep of poor journalists and their equally poor owners , in good humour , it will add up to pretty much more .The media is one of the most important institutions of a democratic society. So I see no harm in pandering to them just a little. After all by allowing their papers to be used as bulletin boards for the government to paste their messages every morning they keep us informed, by all the grandiose announcements of quixotic ministers they keep us entertained, and by giving great prominence to the occasional musings of our dear chief minister on topics as wide ranging as archaeology and aryabhatt, cybernetics and how to maintain the cold chain, they keep us educated. Is it not after all the function of the media to inform, educate and entertain? The government is the only player in the sector, as far I am aware and if there is any other private player, even then the government is behind it. The opening of mall was made possible by just a little wee bit of activism from the benefactor, or the tanatrums of a fugitive officer, a favourite of the government, on the run from some northeastern state, evading charges of murder. I am sorry, Ajay Jee, I do not quite see any point in your cussedness. Well! My point is why they aren’t getting more. They show such enterprise, they are so far sighted. They can report activities in distant Mauritius or Bhutan but fail to see million mutinies at home for all manner of things.
Remember they have built up Bihar from scratch. Just as they had reduced Bihar to a complete nullity. In the days of Lalujee the stories of kidnapping were published on the first page and stayed there till the next kidnapping. Now they banish it to the inside pages in some insignificant corner to escape the most critical eye, even though the standard protocol is to wait till the victim is recovered. The same horror story were repeated till the entire state was on the brink of a nervous breakdown .People form outside came to hate it and fear it like no other state. Now the same media repeats the same success story endlessly, till it induces in a sense of euphoria. People outside longingly speak of a land of opportunity, of a great transformation. Not that the previous regime was not bad, backward looking, reactionary. But its one infirmity was shown as a hundred. Not that the present regime is not forward looking, positive and constructive but it is one achievement is multiplied by hundred. That spells the difference between Lalu and his successor. His successor knows the power of the media. To quote just one example if the same news recycled in respect of investment, recruitment of teachers , doctors , constables , augmentation of generation of electricity were to be tabulated we would be supersaturated.
Lalu spent Rs 4 crores at the end of his 15 year regime .He faced a turbulent and hostile media all along. His little economy cost him lasting ignominy and a bad name for Bihar. His successor has started off by loosening the purse strings with an exponential increase in the budget for "public relation" which translates into media management and image enhancement. He is a shrewd man. He knows that the media beast has to be kept happy. To keep it happy it has to be well fed .He knows the difference between a growl and a purr- a few cores of rupees of the anonymous tax payer .The media knows the difference between a purr and a growl, a meatless diet for itself and an empty purse for the master.

And yes. The media in Bihar is providing some extra services which no one else does. A very special and rejuvenating ego massage, not available not even in the fabled massage parlours of Phuket and Pattaya.We have media men standing in the queue with servile civil servants to recieve and send off dignitaries, some editors, their news papers are best paid in terms of ads, are prepared to be publicly humiliated and bundled down from meetings in public daises to feed the grudge of the master, they accept repeatedly rebukes with a wide grin. After all the open sesame of CMs relief fund may open up with cash grant of medical treatment fro some ailing grand aunt or distant cousin who is terminally ill. The next press club may ne in a five star hotel and the food and victuals may be totally subsidized .But above all there are the rajya sabha and the vidhan parishad seats. It keeps at least two very senior and once respected journalists in perpetual state of standing applause. Who knows their long standing may land them a seat in one of the houses. So Ajay Kumar jee please stops cribbing. If at all, you must lend your voice to increasing the budget, there are too many buglers, singers, court jesters and the rewards are too little.

George Jacob

.........................................................

This refers to the comments made by Brajesh and Santosh Kumar Sinha from Damscus.
First Mr Brajesh should know that the whole list of newspapers benefitted by the government advertisement is attached in the story. Is there BiharTimes or even The Hindu in it.
At least, so far my limited information is concerned the hit of BiharTimes is certainly higher than Pratah Kamal and Halat-e-Bihar. Still it is not getting any advertisement. Casting aspersion that it is doing the story because it is not the beneficiary is morally not appropriate.
Mr Sinha needs to understand that giving advertisement is one thing and giving it to almost non-existing Urdu and Hindi newspapers other. No, where in the story the word corruption has been used.
He needs to understand the role of the media. If the Bihar governments of the past were inefficient and corrupt the Press did not stop highlighting these aspects on the plea that certain other states have equally corrupt and inefficient government. It is for the journalists of that state to expose the shortcomings of their respetive governments. We can not sweep the facts under the carpet because others are doing the same.
Those living abroad and outside Bihar should know that apart from roads––for which you have to give credit to the Centre’s generosity too––nothing much has improved. Apart from that the state government has done barely little on other fronts.
In fact in the second term it is undoing whatever little it had done in the first term. How long will we be carried away by the construction of Buddha Park or beautification of Gandhi Maidan if crores of people in the state have not been getting water and power, not to speak of other problems.
In the early years of Lalu Yadav too Patna hosted the World Cup Cricket match, NRI and Confederation of Indian Industries meet. Ranjan Yadav, now with Janata Dal (United), but then considered as the de facto chief minister of Bihar organized a big national-level seminar on Bihar’s development in A N Sinha Institute.
But Bihar remained where it was because such jamborees do not change the ground reality.

Rajeev Verma

--------------------------------------------------------------------

It is in response to the report published in Bihar Times, a huge amount of public exchequer spent amounting about 28 crore rupees on advertisement last year by the Nitish Kumar Govt. appears that he toes the corporate line to sell his product.What ever is Nitish Kumar selling in Bihar seems mockery and sheer wastage of money.Thanks to Nitish kumar,media houses seem to be feathering their nest.One of acquainted of mine who is in English daily, if he is to be believed, ,unearthed that if any news against Nitish Kumar Govt. appears in the media he usually do not get ready to talk to media person.IT is said that media persons earn by both publishing and not publishing the news.The way public exchequer is coughed up in this kind of razmattaz every people will be allured to join media as career.If Nitish kumar
has done development work it is the public who will appreciate and congratulate him.I think by promoting and aiding journalism means gagging the media to say what is ethical or unethical, what is moral or immoral.
Wakeel Ahmad, Gaya

-----------------------------------------

I’m putting my comment again for Santosh Kr. Sinha

Only Hindustan Dainik Jagran and Prabhat khabar qualify for advt. as per Bihar Govt. advt. policy(http://prdbihar.gov.in/images/stories/policy/advertisement_policy_2007_en.pdf)You may check circulation of newspaper at Audit Bureau of Circulation site. http://www.auditbureau.org/

Its SCAM------------ loot of public money .

Hindi -45000 circulation

English -25000

Urdu- 20000

You can check facts from above website. How can you justify spending crores on advt. in unknown Urdu newspapers and some other publication. Would this help in branding Bihar. This is hard earned tax payers money. If govt. has perfomed in some places it doesn't give licence for loot of public money.Most of the owners of Urdu newspapers are petty politicians and powerbrokers. Its role of enlightened conscious citizens to keep a watch on governance. The person who is accountable should be brought to book. Friend you can't change image of any state by putting advt. in newspapers and managing media. Don't consider Media as God . They are too like any other institution. A vigilant society always keeps govt. on toe.

Vivek Raj

--------------------------------------------

I have read out this article and comments made by different readers across the globe carefully. First of all, I have strong objection to call the deeds ‘corruption’. It is not at all corruption as it was done within the rules; we can call it ‘manipulation’. We all know how was the image of Bihar within the country and beyond the county during the Laloo-Rabri era. At the time, none of us were in a position even to think about the development of Bihar. People were divided in a castes, religion, sects and so on. There were lots expectations from the new government. I believe now situation/condition in Bihar has changed significantly just because, something has been done at the ground for the people of Bihar by the present government that can be noticed very easily. I think government has come up fully at the expectations of the people of Bihar and they selected the same government for another 5-years. Now we started comparing our state from Gujarat, Karnataka or some of the developed states of India. I know, we have no reason to accept that we are far behind. But we can say that our state is at the right track and it has to go a long way. Meanwhile, there is lots of positive change in the image of Bihar too outside/inside the county. Can you say somebody how the image changed? It is just because of advertisement/publicity by the use of media only which covers print and electronic both. And now Bihar/Bihari has started getting result from the better image of Bihar. We are not talking about the better roads and law and order situation in Bihar but we want to mention the following which we are getting from our better image only.

(i) Compare the investment before and after the Nitish government taken the charge of Bihar. The investment increased just because the better image of Bihar.
(ii) See how many branches of reputed private schools of India were before and during the present government. Now you will see almost all the reputed schools have their branches all over the States and our children are getting educated as per the national standard. You will see the result of it in years to come.
(iii) There are significant increase (more than double) of tourists (domestic and foreign) in Bihar. Now Bihar has come in the tourist map of India. It generated thousands of jobs in Bihar now. We have more potential to increase the numbers and that can be achieved by the publicity only.
(iv) Now Patna has better air connectivity. Can you imagine during the Laloo-Rabri time Kingfisher, Jet, Go and many more private airlines run their flights from Patna?

The above all happened due to changed image of Bihar.

Finally, I urge the all the readers and columnist that our work is not only to criticize the government but also to appreciate their work too. We all know that Bihar government is far better than any other state governments of India. They are really taking care the state the way they think better. That’s why people of Bihar have brought the present government with full majority so that nobody can make any obstacle in their work. I will also advise the columnist of Bihar Times and the readers who are readily available to criticize the government let the government free hand to work. Of course, if you have any better ideas/suggestions which you want to share with the government, definitely do it. I have been reading many valuable comments made by the readers at the Bihar Times which I also feel, government can use it.

Santosh Kr. Sinha, Damascus

.............................................................................

Since Mayawati is corrupt,so we can justify our corruption because our level of corruption is not so high. Strange way to defend corruption. Can govt. justify this expenditure. Crores of rupees to unknown newspapers. Being a Bihari check your GK have you heard the names of even half of the newspapers published in the list.

Rishi

-------------------------------------------------------------

Come to UP. You will see the number of statues and the hoardings flooding each and every nook and corner. There is a poster of Mayawati every 2-3 Meters on the lamp-posts. What would you call it ?
I would request the journalist of this news to do the same research in other states too and publish the ratio of amount spent on advertisement and amount spent on development. I think that would give a much better picture of Nitish Govt's expenditure on Adverts.

PS: As an afterthought, I would also like to know how much money did Bihartimes get ?

Brajesh

-----------------------------------------------------

Newspapers just on paper

After reading the write up I am tempted to launch an Urdu or small Hindi daily, if possible from Muzaffarpur, Samastipur or any other town out of Patna.

Let us have newspapers just on paper to earn some fast buck and bury this novel profession of journalism deep in the graveyard of history. Let there be no one left even to write its obituary.

Hats off to Bihar Times.
Amna Kauser
Patna

------------------------------------

Surprisingly govt. didn't consider the respect newspaper the Hindu eligible for govt advt in Bihar But New Indian express is there. Its govt. dole or advt.??

Vikas Singh

------------------------------------------

This is mainly in response to Mr. KK Singh. First of all, i would like to thank
Bihar times and congratulate them for publishing such an eye-opening article. We
all Biharis are authorized to know about the misdeeds of our money by the
government. Let there be some court enquiry into it.
But, at the same time, the comments from Mr. KK Singh seems quite prematured and
prejudiced as well. In his last article, he had criticized Nitish and his
government like hell. And he does not lose any single opportunity to malign
Nitish and his government. I seriously condemn it.
Even a layman can understand that Bihar has seen much better growth in the last
6 years than the 16 years before that. Still Mr. KK Singh is pro-Lalu and
anti-Nitish. Not only Biharis, but all other Indians and even outside India,
people are quite satisfied with Nitish's performance in his last tenure.
Mr. KK Singh, instead of badmouthing against development, you better pen your
ideas for some growth of Biharis. Dont misadvertise the things, accept what is
being done good or bad. I am not in favor of any person or government, but the
development is there for every one to see. Nitish swept the last assembly
election not for nothing..
So, better put your words where your mouth is.

A True Bihari

--------------------------------------

Only Hindustan Dainik Jagran and Prabhat khabar qualify for advt. as per Bihar Govt. advt. policy(http://prdbihar.gov.in/images/stories/policy/advertisement_policy_2007_en.pdf)You may check circulation of newspaper at Audit Bureau of Circulation site. http://www.auditbureau.org/

Its SCAM------------ loot of public money .

Hindi -45000 circulation

English -25000

Urdu- 20000

Vivek Raj

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Vigyapan ka khela koi naya nahi hai ' But use of RTI and social auditing hopefully is a new phenomenon emerging in Bihar. The politician and govt. official would be more cautious in giving freebies to media from next time. Keep up this exercise for some other departments too. This is one of the way to check corruption in govt. system. Keep it up.

Vikas Singh

------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for your story on disproportionate ads to newspapers and news channels. It was well known facts that curbing freedom of press operation has been switched on since the NDA government led By Nitish Kumar was installed over six years back. Now it has been proved beyond doubt that to curb the freedom of press , Nitish Kumar has not adopted rush of disproportionate ads to newspapers, news magazines and electronic channels but also humiliating journalists and proprietors of newspapers , news magazines and electronic channels whenever any adverse but factual reports are published anywhere. Nitish has a trade secret to call the proprietors of that particular newspapers, news agencies, news magazines, electronic channels and they are given dressing down and asked to initiate action against  the particular journalist. In the process, many journalists have been punished of transfers and dismissal from the services by the newspaper managements in Bihar. Only than their ads are restored and proprietors are pardoned in typical feudal style. The RTI query has made it ample clear that how the ads are flowed to newspapers and news magazines and electronic channels by massive funds to the public relation department. One can imagine how a huge amount totalling over Rs 28.45 crore has been released to different newspapers and magazines, particularly, Urdu language papers and magazines just on the eve of  last assembly elections. Interestingly about 35. percent total ads revenue has gone to Dainik Hindustan. Its sister-cum-brother english publication The Hindustan Times separately has got ads of over Rs 58.63 lakh. Surprisingly English newspapers TOI and ET have been given revenue ads over Rs 1.32 crore, Dainik Jagaran-over Rs 5.33 crore etc . Interestingly, the Nitish Kumar government is exactly very generous to increase the abnormal flow of ads to Urdu newspapers , particularly on the eve of the last assembly elections , obviously to woe minority community votes besides his earlier measures to divide the Muslims on the basis of upper caste muslims and lower caste muslims- Muslims were never divided on caste lines earlier in Bihar! One more very very surprising and interesting distribution of ads is advertisements given to RSS and  Hindu out fits  newsmagazine Panchjanya of total Rss 80000\-.Not only that  an Urdu newspaper, owned by an MLA of ruling party JD(U) has been benefited of ads by over Rs 16 lakh.Not only that daily newspapers in Bihar are mushrooming and one journalist, perhaps correspondent of an electronic channel, is publishing at least three Hindi newspapers has been succeeded in getting his service restored after one year of his resignation Partuyush Nav Bihar, an insignificant daily news paper (Hindi)  has strangely got the ads of over Rs 30.25 lakh - this is how Bihar government runs! There are many discrepancies in distribution of ads- The Pioneer, a English Delhi based newspaper., owned by BJP MP, Chandan Mitra has got add of more that national base national newspaper, The indian Express, having countrywide net work and more and more circulation in Bihar .The pioneer has circulation of few hundred copies in Bihar and got ads of over Rs 7.12 lakh and Indian Express , which has circulation in thousands in Bihar, got ads of only over Rs 5.95 lakh. Apart from that an English newspaper , The  Mail Today, published from Delhi and not seen in Bihar has got ads of over Rs 7.07 lakh ads because one of the top officials happens to be to close relation of one of the top journalist of that English newspaper. Weekly of south The Week has significantly got ads of nearly Rs 16 lakh thanks to its Patna based journalist, very, very close to Nitish Kumar. Not only that, ads in lakhs of rupees had been given as freebies to insignificant newspapers in Urdu and Hindu, published from district and sub divisional headquarters on the eve of the last assembly election and payments were  also made promptly.In this way  distribution of ads ratio being unequalled are increasing to all the yes master newspapers, news magazines , electronic channels in the last six years and Nitish formula to clip the wing of freedom of expression is clicking fast and  undeclared censorship is imposed in the state and journalists are praising Nitish Kumar for  so called developments and announcement galore.

K K Singh, A Patna based journalist after retirement as chief reporter, The Times of India.

--------------------------------------------

Many congratulations for exposing the real truth behind all this hype & hoopla of Nitish Kumar and his fake claims of good governance, growth rate, crackdown on corruption aur na jane kya, kya…now we understand its basically a government running on publicity through government advertisements…one can just compare the figure merely from just Rs 4.49 cr. In 2005-06 to staggering Rs 28.47 cr. ….can someone plz count how many times it has been increased?!!...

However, there certain interesting facts came out of your this exclusive story: First, despite the BJP being a part of the NDA govt in Bihar the party’s mouthpiece Panchajanya got just Rs 80,000 and Quami Tanzeem Rs 98, 72,810 cr.!! what a burning, shining example of “Secularism” being practiced in Bihar…BJP must learn a lesson here…Secondly, the Delhi based tabloid Mail Today whose copy even doesn’t come in Bihar got Rs 7,07,635 .…Did you mean in your story that the papers’ editor Bharat Bhushan is brother of state IPRD principal secretary Rajesh Bushan got the trick [ wah Bhai wah!!!]..and Third, is the noticeable exclusion from the list of the name of a paper which earlier was an institution for journalist, The Statesman, not given any amount of money. Surprise but no surprise at all as this has been the only paper doing stories which were not the government press releases. I’ve been watching it for the last five years, quite sincerely.

Many more such glaring exposes have come to light in your report [The Week got Rs 15,20,000…Jai ho baba ]. Would someone from mainstream media choose to pick up this story to expose the real face of Bihar development taking place under Nitish Kumar? C’mon show your courage and justify your being as a journalist with courage!

Bihar bounder

------------------------------------------------

OOPS NDA Govt missed BiharTimes. I guess almost the same stories of other states also and UP must on top list followed by other Cong governments.

Alok