DNA: Mumbai: Friday, August 18, 2017.
To fight
negative propaganda against the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro 3 underground
corridor on social media platforms and the media in general, the Mumbai Metro
Rail Corporation (MMRC) has spent nearly Rs 1 crore by appointing several
private agencies to handle its public relations and social media. The
information obtained by DNA under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, 2005
reveals that several agencies were hired to monitor discussions about the MMRC
on social media.
MMRC has
appointed three different agencies to handle its website, public relations and
social media in particular. Interestingly, the Metro 3 project has been mired
in controversy over the construction of a Metro car depot inside Aarey Milk
Colony with residents from Girgaum protesting their rehabilitation.
Documents
accessed by DNA show that MMRC appointed M/S Genesis Burson-Marsteller Public
Relation Private to provide public relations and media content management to
the MMRC by agreeing to pay a one-year fee of Rs 71.04 lakh. It also appointed
a separate agency M/S Goldmine Advertising Limited, to handle its social media
paying it about Rs 11.28 lakh.
The role of
these particular agencies includes providing monthly reports on conversations
held on social media channels, issuing media statements during issues and
crisis and providing proactive storytelling to media which converts into a
positive story, creating, updating and continuously monitoring social media
presence of MMRC and responding to queries of social media platforms.
"The
idea was to make our presence felt on social media as every government is
adapting and are making themselves visible in the digital world. We have not
used our official social media accounts to counter activists, who constantly
post negative things about the project on Twitter. We have just put forward
facts and benefits of Metro-3 on social media," an MMRC official said.
MMRC also
spent another Rs 44.22 lakh in the past two years to maintain its official
website and around Rs 45.76 on designing its official website.
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