GUWAHATI:
Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to launch the Assam Government’s development and governance-oriented newsletter on Tuesday.
The unveiling of the first issue of Asom Barta (‘Voice of Assam’) will coincide with the first anniversary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government under Himanta Biswa Sarma. He was sworn in on May 10, 2021, as Assam’s second Chief Minister of a BJP-led government, after Sarbananda Sonowal.
The newsletter has been published by the State Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR).
“ Asom Barta will update readers about the latest programmes and policies of the State Government and report on the implementation of government schemes. Citizens, intellectuals and freelance journalists will have the opportunity to provide constructive suggestions to the Government of Assam through the newsletter,” the newsletter’s editor-in-chief Bishnu Kamal Bora said.
He is also the Director of the DIPR.
Mr. Bora said the government’s target in the first phase is to reach 1 crore readers via various new media and social media platforms. More than 10,000 hard copies of the newsletter would be printed and delivered periodically to all State Government offices at the district and block levels and to eminent citizens across the country.
Assam will be the one of the first States in the country to launch its own newsletter, and this is expected to bring a new benchmark in direct communication between the government and its citizens, officials said.
“The first edition of 16 pages will be an anniversary special. Asom Barta will be printed in four languages — Assamese, English and Hindi to start with,” Mr. Bora said, adding that it will be published in Bengali and other regional languages of the State in due course.