"The officers of the Department of Information and Public Relations should act as a bridge between the Government and the common people in order to disseminate all the pro-people policies and programmes of the State Government in true letter and spirit."Disclosing this here today during the course of a review meeting of the Department, the Secretary, Information and Public Relations Department, Mr. Tejveer Singh said that in today's technologically driven era, it becomes all the more significant to make use of all modern tools of communication with special emphasis on social media and sensitize the common man about welfare measures undertaken by the State Government. He exhorted the officers stationed both at the headquarters and in Districts to be the eyes and ears of the government and help in projecting positive image of the state through their professional approach.The Secretary also directed the officers posted in the districts to develop an efficient feedback mechanism regarding the public response towards the policies formulated by the Government and inform the headquarters without fail about the discontent, if any so that the higher echelons of the government are appraised of the same in the greater public interest.
On the occasion, the Director of the department Mr. Gurkirat Kirpal Singh without mincing words asked the officials of the department to buff up their PR skills and develop cordial relations with media. He laid stress on the need for PR officials to be pro-active towards responding to the activities in their respective areas .DIPR also reiterated the need of the PR officials to rise above being just the mouthpiece of government and be more vigilant to public sentiment and convey the area specific baulk towards government initiatives, without wasting time.The meeting was attended by the entire team of PR officials of Punjab including Dr. Senu Duggal and Mr. Opinder Singh Lamba ( both Additional Directors), Mr. Surinder Malik, Joint Director, Mr. Harjit Singh Grewal, Dr. Ajit Kanwal Singh, Mr. Randeep Singh Ahluwalia (all Deputy Directors), DPROs from all the districts as well as IPROs and APROs from the Head Office.