Directorate of Information and Public Relations, Assam

Prime Minister). The head of Publicity Department was also called Publicity Officer. He had two Asstt Publicity Officers one for Assam Valley and the other for Surama Valley. The annual budget of the department at that time was Rs 36,000.00 (Rupees thirty six thousand) only. The District of Sreehatta (Sylhet) was also a part of Assam. Surama Valley is now known as Barak Valley excluding Sylhet District. The first Publicity Officer of the department was an officer from Assam Civil Service – Yahia Khan Choudhury. The prime task of the department at that time was to focus on the war related news and information by way of Press Notes, Articles, and Booklets. The department also brought out a fortnightly Journal in Assamese and Bengali under the title ‘Bhavisyat Asom ‘ (The future Assam). The Journal was edited by Krishna Bhuyan (Assamese edition) and Ramesh Chandra Das (Bengali edition). The department had two vehicles – one was a Singer and the other was a Morris. Apart from press releases, booklets, etc., the department used to give war related news through handmade megaphones made with thin galvanised iron sheet by publicity personal at various important points of Shillong town. The announcements were made in English, Assamese, Khasi, Hindi & Nepali languages. After India attained independence, the responsibility, stature and importance of the Directorate increased manifold. The department used to send regularly two fortnightly reports regarding - 1) Indo-Pak Relations and 2) Public opinion to the Chief Minister. For these purpose the department had also to procure and scan two daily newspapers of Pakistan namely – The Dawn and The Pakistan Times regularly. For compiling public opinion reports, comments from the editorials of different newspapers were gathered. The information compiled and submitted by the Publicity Department acted as the basis for the Assam Chief Minister for preparing his reports to be sent to the Prime Minister of India. During the tenure of T.T.S. Hayley, the department was reorganised and concrete shape was given to it. He installed intercom telephone system in the department which was not available to any other government department at that time. After Hayley, Captain Dowse, Major Rigby, M. Hussian, I.C.S, S. Bhattacharjee, B.C. Kapur I.A.S, A.N. Kidwai I.C.S. took over as Director of the Department in succession. Later on during the tenure of Directorship of I.P. Choudhury, separate wings such as Exhibition, Cultural and Film Division were created in the department. These divisions were headed by Kula Das and Rudra Baruah. The onus of putting up Tableaux and presentation of folk dances at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi from Assam was on this department at that time and the Directorate was able to bag prizes and bring honour and prestige to Assam several times. In November 1997, the Government of Assam vide Notification No.AR31/ 97/2 Dated 1.11.97 created a new Department namely “Information &Public Relations Department” by bifurcating the existing Home Department and the new I&PR Department was made the Administrative Department for Directorate of Information & Public Relations . Consequent upon creation of the new Department, the Government of Assam vide Notification No., AR31/97/6 Dtd. 28.4.1998 also upgraded the Directorate of Information & Public Relations from a Level-II Directorate to a Level- I Directorate.