Certain decisions taken by YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy might appear to be strange and quirky to some people, but if one would go a little deep into them, one would find such decisions sensible.
One such decision taken by Jagan of late is said to be not to continue “Andhra Pradesh,” the official monthly magazine of the state government.
The magazine is brought out by the Department of Information and Public Relations Department, on behalf of the government.
The magazine, which was started way back in 1952, was being published in English, Telugu and Urdu languages, primarily to propagate the government’s policies and programmes among the people.
It used to provide information regarding developmental activities undertaken by the state government, besides featuring interesting articles of personality development, humour, career counselling, entertainment, short stories and poetry. There is an online edition of the magazine.
After the bifurcation of the combined state, Andhra Pradesh magazine has become the official journal of AP government, while Telangana government has started its own magazine “Telangana” with a similar concept.
After Jagan came to power in AP, the officials brought to the notice of Jagan about appointment of a new editorial team, as the previous team appointed during the Telugu Desam Party regime had to be shunted out.
But Jagan apparently told the officials that there was no need to run the magazine, because it was not of much use for the government.
“When there is a department to publicise the government programmes in the media, why should we waste money on the journals? Moreover, it has become a white elephant, as nobody reads Andhra Pradesh magazine, except the department people,” he said.
He observed that the money being spent on Andhra Pradesh magazine could be ploughed back into the Information Department and used to communicate with the people more effectively. He also did not approve of the e-magazine concept.
Well, this is a very appreciable decision on the part of Jagan, as running a magazine is an expensive affair with the newsprint cost going up steeply.
And it requires at least 10 editorial team members with high salaries and the magazine does not generate any advertisement revenue as was the case with other private magazines.
During the Chandrababu Naidu regime, there was a lot of money wasted on Andhra Pradesh magazine, which was brought out in all colour editions on costly newsprint and was published at a private printer at a very high cost.
Now, Jagan can save all such money!