The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), the nodal Department for issuing advertisements to the print, electronic and online media on behalf of the Government of India, has co-opted the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) for verification of the existence, regularity and circulation of the newspapers/periodicals in Jammu and Kashmir empanelled with DAVP for release of advertisements by the Government of India.According to a communication from N V Reddy, Additional Director General, DAVP, addressed to Principal Secretary to the Government, Information Department, the DIPR has been asked to verify the existence, regularity and circulation of all the newspapers and periodicals empanelled by DAVP from Jammu and Kashmir, in tune with the guidelines laid down in the New Advertisement Policy for DAVP notified by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting last year.As per the list provided by DAVP, 139 newspapers/periodicals from Jammu and Kashmir are presently empanelled with DAVP for release of advertisements from the Government of India.
According to the communication, the new advertisement policy of DAVP focuses on streamlining release of Government advertisements and to promote equity and fairness among various categories of empanelled newspapers/periodicals.The DAVP advertisement policy introduces Marking System for newspapers to incentivize publications with better professional standing and circulation. The marking system is based on six objective criterions with different marks allotted to each criterion. The criterion includes Circulation certified by ABC/RNI (25 marks), EPF subscription for employees (20 marks), number of pages (20 marks), subscription to wire services of UNI/PTI/Hindustan Samachar (15 marks), own printing press (10 marks) and annual subscription payment to PCI (10 marks).The policy framework includes circulation verification procedure for empanelment of newspapers/journals with DAVP. It is stated in the policy that DAVP reserves the right to have the figures of circulation checked through RNI or its representative.
The policy has classified empanelled newspapers/journals into three categories namely Small (<25,000 copies per publishing day), Medium (25,001-75,000 copies per publishing day) and Big (>75,000 copies per publishing day).The policy also mentions relaxation in empanelment procedure to provide special encouragement for regional language/dialects small and medium newspapers, mass circulated newspapers (circulation >1 lakh), newspapers in Northeastern states, Jammu & Kashmir and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.To promote equity based regional outreach, the policy emphasizes that the budget for all India release of advertisements shall be divided among states based on total circulation of newspapers in each State /Language.The policy mentions that PSUs and Autonomous bodies may issue the advertisements directly at DAVP rates to newspapers empanelled with DAVP.Pertinently, the DAVP has, during 2015-16, released advertisements to the tune of Rs 1190 crore to the newspapers/periodicals empanelled with it throughout India.