An open letter to Honble Defence Minister

Contact:-ajmeralam2000@gmail.com/Cell:-919906103001

(NO CHANGES MADE---PUBLISHED IN ORIGINAL FORM)

Honble Defence Minister,

Government of India ,

New Delhi .

Subject: Mismanagement in the office of the Public Relation Officer (PRO) 16 Corps/ Western Command.

Respected Sir,

With heavy heart we want to inform your good self that for the last one year office of the Public Relation Officer (PRO) is not functioning in professional manner. The officer, who has been holding charge of PRO Defence Jammu is acting as a dictator and since his tenure of about nine months in Jammu he always has adopted pick and choose policy while dealing with media..

Yesterday, i,e 24^th of November, 2009 Jammu an Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor and many other dignitaries were in Jammu to dedicate War Memorial BALIDHAAN STAMB to the people of state.

However, the policy adopted by PRO Defence to invite media is beyond our imagination. All the media including National Channels and Newspapers had to intervene themselves to get the passes to cover the event.

We had to personally call the PRO to ensure that our name is in the list of the people invited to cover the event. In the process, many of the National News Channels, National and local Dailies were unable to attend the function.

What adds to our surprise was the fact that PRO had personally mailed the Invitation to some media in Jammu .

The journalists who went to cover the function on their own were asked to get down from the vehicle that was carrying journalists to the spot.

Treatment given to media on the venue was also very disrespectful. No proper sitting arrangements were made for media. Not even press notes supposed to carry the information about the memorial were provided to us there.

We wanted to bring these points to your notice so that the relation between media in Jammu and Army here keep functioning smoothly.