By Mumtaz Falahi, TwoCirlces.net,

New Delhi: Shocked by the news of scandal in the distribution of advertisements by the prestigious government body, National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL), several literary personalities have demanded enquiry into the case by the HRD Ministry.

A couple of days ago reports came in the media, TwoCircles.net also reported it, that NCPUL gave a single ad agency the power to distribute advertisements; this was against the government rule and also against the precedent at NCPUL.

TwoCircles.net contacted NCPUL and asked authorities to explain. Responding to our query, NCPUL Vice Chairman Chander Bhan Khayal sent us an explanatory letter attached with the original complaint sent to HRD Minister Arjun Singh by another ad agency Sky Advertising and Mktg against the unfairness at NCPUL in ad distribution policy.

Urdu Council ad in an English newspaper

Bhan said that he has written a letter to HRD Ministry about the discrimination with the said agency and requested that if before October 2007 services of more than one advertisement agencies were sought, why the policy was reversed. Bhan has also requested Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh that the rational policy must be evolved in this matter on which lacs of rupees are spent annually.

The complainant Sky Advertising and Mktg, in its letter to the HRD Minister, says that they were working with NCPUL for the last nine years but since October 2007 it has been sidelined and ad distribution power has been given to a single ad agency that is new in the field. Sky Advertising and Mktg. claims that it the only Urdu background ad agency in the country which is fully accredited with the Indian Newspaper Society (INS).

Meanwhile, several literary personalities have demanded fair enquiry into the case, says a report in Urdu daily Rashtriya Sahara. Dr Maula Bakhsh, convernor of Urdu Society at Dayal Singh College said he was shocked to know about the case. He said NCPUL Director Ali Javed should step down from his post in the wake of the allegations.

Dr Kausar Mazhari of Jamia Millia Islamia’s Dept. of Urdu said NCPUL is a prestigious Urdu institution and the news about scandal there is shocking. Same is the view of Tariq Faizi, general secretary of Urdu Press Club.