To bolster its image, the Delhi government has sought professional help by appointing public relations firm Perfect Relations as its “media consultant”.
The move comes as the AAP government is drawing criticism from its political opponents over its style of functioning and heavy expenditure on advertisements.
Perfect Relations was established and co-founded in 1992 in Delhi by image consultants and media commentators Dilip Cherian and Bobby Kewalramani.
Publicity budget put to use
The cost of hiring the consultant will be met from within the Rs. 256-crore publicity and advertisement budget. This includes money already spent and future expenditure on advertisements for this year.
A senior Delhi government official confirmed the development and said the PR agency had been hired to augment the resources of the Information and Publicity department. “It is a small department with just five media spokespersons, with one working at the Raj Niwas. Many times, news of different departments is missed out,” he said. The job of the firm would be to gather news from all departments and then write press notes to be released to the media.
Last year, the AAP government had set aside Rs. 526 crore for information and publicity in the 2015-16 budget, facing flak from both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress.
‘Shabdarth’, an internal ad release agency, was then set up by the Delhi government to take over the process of releasing advertisements through private agencies.
