She added: ``Even if the government thinks of downsizing the government, as suggested by the Geethakrishnan report, alternate employment for the affected employees must be found.'' Despite the minister's assurance that DAVP is likely to be revamped in a positive way, there are fears in the corridors of this historical organisation that DAVP may be dying soon. In existence from the times of the World War II, when theerstwhile government of India appointed a Chief Press Advisor, it came to be known as DAVP under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in 1955.

The significance of DAVP lies in the fact that it books advertisements in various newspapers/journals on behalf of various ministries and departments of the government of India at a concessional rate. For instance, if a Delhi-based national daily charges Rs 575 for a standard commercial advertisement, it charges DAVP Rs 61.20 for an advertisement of the same size and display. In other words, if DAVP is shut down and the job of producing and distributing government advertisements is passed on to private agencies, the government will have to pay at least nine times more to newspapers and journals to place the same advertisements and publicity material.

According to an official in DAVP, if private agencies take over the job of producing and distributing government advertisements, small newspapers/publications will be badly hit. He explains: ``DAVP acts under government guidelines which make it mandatory for the organisation to place advertisements in small newspapers, besides the bigger publications.'' Also, if private agencies take over, it won't make sense to place ads on commercial rates in smaller newspapers with limited reach. But the problem has been brewing for quite sometime now in DAVP.

Says a DAVP insider: ``DAVP is just a distributing agency now. All the creative work of producing ads has been entrusted with private agencies.'' As a result, some of the publications which get the DAVP ads, have started protesting against accepting these ads at a concessional rate.

When faced with the recent stand of some publications that it's unfair to accept ads made by private agencies on concessional rates, a section of the government sat up and ordered an enquiry into the matter. The result is out in the form of Geethakrishnan report on expenditure reforms.

DAVP has been working as a catalyst of social change and economic growth over the years. It has been instrumental in creating awareness amongst masses on socio-economic themes such as family planning and eradication of diseases such as polio.