For the expansion in GST awareness programs the Finance Minister Manish Sisodia of Delhi Government, had planned to do a Facebook live event before the GST Council meeting in order to solve queries and generate public interest in the topic. But it seems that the technological department i.e. Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) gave up on this plan and said that they are not capable of providing such kind of services in the current.
The Aam Aadmi Party had intended to go live on Thursday, June 1 for the purpose of creating awareness on the widely acclaimed topic of GST but the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) claimed that Sisodia would need an ‘open tender’ to do this event and gave a setback to this plan.
Read Also: Easy Preparations for Small Businesses Ahead of GST in India
Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) cleared out that they lack the technical capability to do such kind of social media campaign. This setback and inability of such high standing department come amidst nationwide approach towards digital media initiatives and showed up a gray face of the preparations of the Indian government towards the approaching new era of digitization.
Manish Sisodia was shocked by the DIP officials and immediately made the Chief Secretary aware about this and warned that DIP officers will be discharged if it does happen in the second Facebook Live event is to be held on June 5. The whole scene was started when the government of Delhi passed the GST bill in the Assembly on Wednesday and the sources in the ministry said that for this, the ministers of the government had met at least 32 business organizations, while there was a plan to seek the opinion of ordinary people and small traders through Facebook Live.
To discuss GST, the Central Government has convened a meeting of the Finance Ministers of all the states on June 3. Earlier, Manish Sisodia wanted to communicate with the people of Delhi through Facebook Live on social media.
Recommended: GST Composition Scheme: Key Features, Eligibility and Registration Process
Manish Sisodia wrote a letter to the department, in which first was on May 26 and wrote the second letter to DIP on May 30. The source said revealed that in both the letters, Finance Minister had told the Director about this event and instructed them to do it before the GST Council meeting on June 3. But in a negative response to the second letter, a senior DIP official wrote back that it is not a specialized agency for the event and the DIP department is technically not enabled for this kind of social media campaigns but still if the government wants the campaign to be done, it will take at least one month for the proper arrangements for this kind of event organization.
