OP Rawat-led panel to monitor govt ads as mandated by SC

NEW DELHI: A panel comprising former chief election commissioner OP Rawat, advertising veteran Ramesh Narayan and former Prasar Bharati member AK Tandon will look into the content and propriety of government advertisements to check their adherence to Supreme court guidelines.
In April 2016, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had constituted a committee comprising BB Tandon, the former chief election commissioner, Rajat Sharma, the chairperson and editor-in-chief of India TV, and Piyush Pandey, the executive chairperson and creative director of the advertising agency Oligvy & Mather, India and South Asia, to see that guidelines set for government advertisements by the Supreme Court are followed.

In 2015, the SC directed the central government to constitute a three-member committee "consisting of persons with unimpeachable neutrality and impartiality" to regulate the issue of public advertisement In a notification issued last week, the I&B ministry said the new committee will look into the implementation of the SC guidelines on content regulation of government advertising. The new committee has been selected by a three-member panel comprising Press Council of India chairman CK Prasad, lyricist Prasoon Joshi and I&B secretary Amit Khare.

In 2016, Tandon-led committee had flagged the expenditure of AAP in govt ads, following a complaint from Congress leader Ajay Maken on the issue. It had also directed the AAP to reimburse the money spent on such ads and had said the Delhi government should assess its expenditure.

Among the new members of the committee, Ramesh Narayan, Founder of Canco Advertising is the Vice-President and Area Director for the International Advertising Association (IAA), APAC region and AK Tandon has served as media advisor to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The committee will not only monitor print advertisements, but will also seek reports from I&B ministry, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and the National Broadcasters Association in identifying violations in advertisements on electronic media. The committee has been asked to send monthly reports to the ministry in this regard.