A hoarding with picture of PM Modi along with Union petroleum
minister Dharmendra Pradhan and BJP national president Amit Shah at Malgodown over-bridge in Cuttack.
Bhubaneswar: Cautioned by the Jagatsinghpur district administration over the violation of the Supreme Court directive on publicity ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, the IOCL authorities Tuesday removed posters carrying photographs of Union minister of petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan.
The IOCL authorities have started the process of replacing the picture of the minister which appeared along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the publicity material for the oil major’s Paradip refinery inauguration, said Jagatsinghpur district collector Bijay Ketan Upadhaya.
IOCL insiders said the company had installed several hoardings carrying photographs of both the Prime Minister and Union oil minister in Paradip, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
The ruling BJD opposed Pradhan’s pictures in the publicity vans.
The district administration of Jagatsinghpur raised questions on the use of the minister’s pictures along with that of the Prime Minister. The police had detained at least two publicity vans of IOCL on charge of violating the apex court’s directive which said pictures of Union ministers cannot be used in government publicity materials. However, there is no restriction on the use of the Prime Minister’s pictures.
“I had written a letter to the IOCL authorities to take action to avoid violation of the Supreme Court directives in regard to government publicity. They have responded and removed the minister’s picture from publicity materials,” the district collector told media over phone.
The IOCL January 25 had launched a publicity campaign for its Rs 35,000 crore refinery project at Paradip which will be dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Modi February 7. The oil major set rolling 30 publicity vans for the purpose. Agencies
