SilverLine: State govt to print 5 lakh booklets

Thiruvananthapuram: Even though laying of stones for the SilverLine project has been informally stopped owing to the Thrikkakara bypoll, the government is going ahead with the campaign. In the latest development, the government has ordered printing five lakh copies of the publicity material for the project at the cost of Rs 7.5 lakh.
The booklet, titled ‘SilverLine - All you need to know’, “explaining” the project, will be printed at semi-government organization C-APT and the government press. Though it was originally proposed that the material be printed at the government press alone, the government press superintendent had informed that government presses do not have the facility to print the publicity material cover page the way the government wants it to be, which should be in multi-colour with graphic representations.
Based on this, the government decided that the inner pages would be printed in the government press, while the cover pages would be printed in C-APT. In February this year, the government had sanctioned Rs 4.51 crore for printing 50 lakh copies of publicity material.
The government had then entrusted Kottayam-based MM Publications Limited to print the publicity material for distributing to the public.
The government has come up with the idea as the opposition against the project has been mounting. The chief minister himself had participated in some of the meetings, a series of which were conducted to explain the project before a selected group of audience.
CPM cadres have also been asked to come up with social media posts in favour of the project. It is in addition to these that the government decided to come up with booklets that will be taken to households, mainly those falling along the project route or are affected by it.
Congress has also come up with a similar initiative and decided to visit individual houses and distribute the booklet prepared based on the study report prepared by a UDF team headed by M K Muneer.