IOCL removes oil minister's picture from publicity materials

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 today 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 Union 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 the 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 question on the use of the minister's picture along with the Prime Minister.
The police had detained at least two publicity vans of IOCL on the 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 the publicity materials," the District Collector told PTI over phone.

The IOCL on 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 on February 7. The oil major set rolling 30 publicity vans for the purpose.
Pradhan during his visit to Paradip on January 31 had said he had no objection in removing his pictures from the publicity materials.
However, posters and other publicity materials of BJP carried pictures of Pradhan and party president Amit Saha, Union Minister Jual Oram and others.
Meanwhile, the ruling BJD has put hoardings and posters in strategic locations in Bhubaneswar carrying picture of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his legendary father Biju Patnaik after whose name the ruling party was christened.

The Prime Minister's route from airport to Raj Bhavan has been dotted with these posters.