NEW DELHI: The activities of the Song and Drama Division, the Exhibition Wing of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, and the Public Interface Campaign (PIC) work of the Press Information Bureau are to be integrated with the Directorate of Field Publicity.

The move is aimed at bringing in greater functional integration and better outreach in the activities of the various field media units of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Under the new directive that takes effect immediately, the Director of the Song and Drama Division and the Additional Director General of the Exhibition wing of DAVP will directly report to the Principal Director General of the DFP at the headquarters.

The budget of all the concerned Media Units - DFP, S&DD, and DAVP – which has already been allocated a shall be united for the activities to be undertaken by the respective organisations within their budget lines.

As there is no dedicated manpower for the PIC work of the PIB, these activities will be performed by the DFP and the funds earmarked for the DCID Scheme for PIC activities shall be utilised by DFP.

Interestingly, various committees had recommended similar integration of activities of different media units of I and B doing similar work in the 1980s. Those committees had said the exhibition wings to be under one head, the film wings to be under one head, and the public information wings to be under a third head.