Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary has directed the state’s information and public relations department to activate a quick response team to monitor development projects, law and order and other matters of public interest, while responding promptly to misleading reports.
The directive was issued during a review meeting of the department on Thursday, where Choudhary asked officials to strengthen communication between the government and citizens. He said the Information and Public Relations Department, or IPRD, should ensure that details of government schemes, development initiatives and welfare programmes reach people in a simple, clear and effective manner.
The proposed team is expected to monitor significant public-interest issues and take immediate action against what the chief minister described as negative or misleading reports. The source report did not specify the team’s membership, operating procedures, response timelines or the mechanism it would use to distinguish misleading information from criticism or contested claims.
Choudhary also directed officials to establish stronger management and monitoring systems at the departmental, district and panchayat levels. The stated objective is to improve the timely redressal of public grievances and ensure that information reaches citizens across the state’s administrative levels.
The focus on communication is linked to access to welfare benefits. The chief minister instructed the department to widely publicise the rules and provisions of the pension scheme so that eligible beneficiaries are aware of the facilities available to them. The meeting also reviewed the department’s activities, priorities and communication mechanisms for ensuring that government schemes reach their intended beneficiaries.
“ The department must ensure that information of public interest reaches the people in a timely manner and that effective initiatives are taken to address their concerns,” Choudhary said, according to the report. He also asked the department to promote Bihar’s civilisation and cultural heritage globally and to engage with people from the state living elsewhere in India and abroad.
The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Pratyaya Amrit, the chief minister’s secretaries Lokesh Kumar Singh and Sanjay Kumar Singh, IPRD Secretary Naveen Kumar, department director Gunjan Singh and other senior officials. Kumar presented an overview of the department’s activities and communication systems during the review.
The directive places public information and grievance monitoring within a broader administrative framework spanning the state, districts and panchayats. The next operational details will depend on how the quick response team is constituted and how the department implements the proposed monitoring and communication systems.
