Dhumal highlights role of PR and media in good governance

Shimla, Jul 12 (UNI) Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today called upon the public relation professionals and other media persons to play an active and interactive role in good governance.

Inaugurating the two-day northern region conference on ''Importance of Public Relations and Media in Good Governance'', organised by Himachal Chapter of Public Relations Society of India (PRSI), to mark the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the PRSI, he exhorted the media to help in building a strong and vibrant nation.

Stressing that there is close relationship between the concept of transparency, governance and public relations, Mr Dhumal said that while transparency was a part of goverance, public relations was an exercise in effective communication.

He said the objective of ''swaraj'' (self rule) could be attained only by educating the masses and empowering them to be able to regulate and control the authority and added that the role of public relations and communications was paramount in this respect.

He also urged public relations practitioners and professionals to stand committed to their basic objective to empower people through the free flow of ideas and facilitating access to information and knowledge and communication technologies.

Since the attainment of independence, there has been greater focus on governance at grass root level and successive governments had been making efforts to bring about socio-economic transformation in rural India by ensuring effective people's participation for rapid and sustainable development, he said.

The Chief Minister said media had become an integral part of government. He urged the media to present the information in right perspective and send proper feed back to the government to help it become more responsive and improve governance.

On the occasion, the Chief Minister honoured H K Mittoo, former Director of Public Relations, Himachal Pradesh and Dr. C.V.N.Reddy, renowed PR Professional from Hyderabad for their valuable contribution in the field of Public Relations and veteran journalists J.N.Sadhu and P.N.Sharma for their contribution in the field of journalism.

UNI AS PS BK2029