24 senior PIB officials shifted to regional centres

New Delhi: In a major move aimed at revamping regional centres of Press Information Bureau (PIB), the Information & Broadcasting Ministry has transferred 24 senior officers of the Indian Information Service (IIS).

According to the order, senior officer KS Dhatwalia has been transferred to Guwahati as Director General North East Division of PIB. Dhatwalia, who was DG in PIB, New Delhi and handling the media-related works of Ministry of Home Affairs, would now work from PIB Imphal on loan basis while being on the strength of PIB Guwahati.

In a similar level of transfer, MVVS Murthy has been moved to Chennai from Bengaluru as DG (South), PIB.

The I&B Ministry has also transferred 22 additional director generals to regional centres to strengthen the PIB units in those regions. Onkarmal Kedia, who was ADG, DAVP, New Delhi, has been transferred to Jaipur, while Mayank Kumar Agrawal has been moved to Patna from New Delhi and K Syama Prasad, who was posted at Ahmedabad PIB, has been brought back to New Delhi as ADG PIB. Prasad had been moved to Ahmedabad as a replacement of Uday More.

According to the order, RN Mishra has been made ADG, PIB Raipur; Priya Kumar, ADG, DAVP, New ADG would now work from DFP, Agra on loan basis on the strength of PIB, New Delhi; Ranjana Dev Sarmah has been shifted to PIB Bhubaneswar, Maushami Chakraborty has been shifted to PIB, Kolkata from PIB Raipur. Nitin D Wakankar moved to PIB, Mumbai from New Delhi.

According to a senior official in I&B Ministry, transfer of ADGs from New Delhi to regional centres is an attempt to revamp the functioning of PIB in outstation centres. The official further added that some more senior officials would be moved to the other cities to expand the working of PIB to create awareness among masses about poor-friendly schemes of the Central government.