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Newspapers hit by govt's new policy on capsule Advts

Kashmir Times. Dated: 8/3/2021 2:22:48 AM

KT NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, Aug 2: Newspapers across the country have been badly hit by the central government's new policy of not releasing big advertisements on tenders, recruitments, banks' reports, etc. and instead giving only small capsule advertisements providing the electronic links that can be clicked by the interested persons to get the full details

The issue was raised in the Rajya Sabha on Monday that small and medium newspapers dependent on the public notices of the central government will collapse as major part of their revenue comes from the government advertisements.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, however, justified the new policy of inserting only small notices as advertisements that cost minuscule of the expenditure incurred earlier. Such notices hardly cost a few hundred rupees as compared to thousands on the full-page and big advertisements, he said.

The question came into focus in the supplementary questions on the main question asked by Dr Fauzia Tahseen Khan of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on the expenditure incurred by the government on advertisements in three years. Thakur assured the House that the capsule advertisements will not only save the government revenue but also reduce the newsprint cost on printing big advertisements, at times running into many pages.

Fauzia herself did not ask any supplementaries but joined the Opposition agitating for a debate on the Pegasus. She got two chances and both times she demanded the debate, which was expunged by Deputy Chairman Harivansh since it did not concern her questions. The question hour was shut after half an hour with half a dozen questions answered amid the pandemonium