Mid-August is usually good time for advertising agencies. Various government ministries and departments put out advertisements for Independence Day, buying print media space worth crores, on which the agencies get their cut. Till a snag developed this year.

Communications Minister Arun Shourie has issued an order that the department of posts, department of information technology, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd -- all under his ministry -- will henceforth release all their advertising through the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity.

The move comes after it was brought to the notice of the minister that media buying for Independence Day advertisements were being done by agencies that were not on the selected panel.

Senior government officials said the change did not have any adverse impact on the advertisement campaigns of BSNL as well as MTNL.

"We are going as per our plan. The move has only benefited the organisation as the process has been simplified," said a BSNL official. BSNL has earmarked Rs 160 crore (Rs 1.60 billion) for ad-spend across the country.

BSNL has already launched its campaign on the lowest monthly rental of Rs 99 for cellular phones through DAVP.

With DAVP coming into the picture, BSNL's existing agencies will now only do the creative work for the advertisement.

BSNL's campaign is being handled by Grey Worldwide, Headstart Communication, Sobhagya Advertising and AirAes.

"BSNL will now only pay for the creative work of these agencies while the media buying will be done by DAVP," said BSNL officials.

Last year, around the same time, BSNL's advertising roll out had come under rough weather when several advertising agencies on the panel had alleged that the PSU was giving out projects to companies that were outside the selected panel.

However, Shourie's intervention this time has ensured that such an allegation does not resurface this year.