No details provided of which periodicals received ads and of what amount

SRINAGAR: An attempt to hide information on the share of official advertisements to newspapers published in J&K is evident in the Directorate of Information dodging queries filed under Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The applicant who filed the RTI queries said the department has concealed many facts that could have given a clear picture on application of rules and regulations in transparent disbursement of advertisements.
While eight points have been answered in this RTI application, two important queries on who got what share of advertising, and top advertising spending of the government on any of its schemes or programmes, have remained unanswered.
While the department has mentioned the policy it has been following on what quantum of ad share newspapers and periodicals can get, it has kept mum on how much ad flow the newspapers and periodicals actually get.
This dodging of vital questions raises questions over the advertisement policy pursued by the department, which has often been criticised for undue favouritism in releasing of advertisements.
The sketchy details provided do not mention details of advertisements given to dailies and the total amount paid to them up to the 4th Quarter of Financial Year 2021-22, along with details of the same for the first three quarters of the current financial year.
The department merely said that dailies with a minimum of 8 pages are entitled to 400 column cms advertisements daily while it is 200 column for weeklies having 16 pages.
The department received the RTI application a month ago but has not even bothered to respond to the applicant’s questions, forcing him to file an RTI application again with the First Appellate to get answers to his queries.
The RTI application was filed on October 17 and even after a month no reply was received by him on two of the key points about which the information was sought: which newspapers/periodicals received advertisements and of what monetary value.
The answer to the RTI application has culminated at Point 8 and after that two of the queries have remained unanswered, the applicant said.
According to the applicant, the information needed pertained to total spending of JK Government on advertisements according to the policy that is adopted by the department for distribution of advertisement to newspapers, weeklies and other periodicals published in Kashmir division. It asked questions on the status on categorization of newspapers, weeklies and other periodicals at present, circulation of all newspapers published in Kashmir division, and above all, the critical question of details of advertisements given to all the dailies and the sum of money received by them.

Reader correspondent