Bengaluru, DHNS: Plans image makeover with corporate-style marketing blitz. Three years into power and mired in controversies, the Siddaramaiah government has now decided to go in for an image makeover. For this, it has decided on a corporate-style marketing blitz for its welfare programmes.

At an interaction with journalists from across the state in Bengaluru on Saturday organised by Karnataka Media Academy, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he had decided to retain the Information portfolio during the recent Cabinet reshuffle so that he could personally monitor the image makeover.

Siddaramaiah said some of the government’s flagship schemes like Anna Bhagya, Krishi Bhagya and Ksheera Bhagya have benefitted lakhs of people. But the government has not adequately publicised them. “Unlike in the old days, marketing is now important. We need to take our work to the people. This would help in effective implementation of our programmes,” he added.

The image makeover exercise by marketing populist schemes comes at a time when the government is facing a series of controversies including the suicide by police officer M K Ganapathi and resignation of Anupama Shenoy as DySP. Siddaramaiah is also facing charges of weakening the Lokayukta institution.

To start with, official sources said the information department would be revamped, upgraded into a commissionerate and a senior IAS officer appointed to monitor its activities. The government has already declared that it will consider the next 22 months running up to the 2018 Assembly polls as an “election period” and will strategise its policies and programmes to retain power.

At the interaction programme, Siddaramaiah admitted that even his Cabinet colleagues and party legislators have not done much to take the government’s programmes to the people. “Most of the government programmes are for the deprived sections of society and we do not get publicity when we work for them. But I will work towards ensuring their voices are also heard,” he said.

The chief minister, while asserting that the government has taken the right decisions on policies and programmes, said, “The state faced one of the worst droughts in 44 years. If not for the Anna Bhaya scheme, there would have been chaos. People would have starved to death or there would have been largescale migration in search for food,” he claimed.

At a separate programme, Siddaramaiah said he is convinced about the path he has taken. “I have conviction about the direction in which I am headed, as my conscience is clear.”

Siddaramaiah also rubbished the Opposition’s claim that suicides by police officers were on the rise. “There is no law and order problem in the state. According to the National?Crime Records Bureau, 24 police personnel committed suicide in 2007 while the number stood at 17 last year,” he said.

Siddaramaiah’s announcements

New policy soon to curb illegal sand mining
No going back on Yettinahole project. D V Sadananda Gowda initiated it.
VRS for Mysore Paper Mills staff. Meeting in this regard soon.
30,000 vacancies in the Hyderbad-Karnataka region to be filled in a phased manner
Govt schools will not be closed.