Taking a cue from Haryana which became the first state in the country to have a media policy, Punjab is in the process of constituting a media society which will be headed by the state?s public relations minister.
Sources said the finance and the law departments had cleared the proposal. As per it, the public relations department will also continue to handle the job of publicity.
Principal secretary, information and public relations, Punjab, DS Jaspal told FE here on Tuesday that the governing council of the society had a meeting on Monday. The media society is being formed in place of proposed media corporation for which the election manifesto of ruling party had promised.
Significantly while the Punjab government was still debating the formation of media corporation of a media society and framing guidelines for a media policy, neighbouring Haryana has already formed a media society called Sanwad and announced a media policy which boasts of creation of a Patrakar Kalyan Kosh with Rs 50 lakh as the state government?s contribution, allotment of plots by the Haryana urban development authority (HUDA) for group housing societies of journalists, enhancement of insurance cover from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh and liberal accreditation policy for those working on contractual basis and representatives of the electronic media.