Historical
Background
To create consciousness among people about health and sanitation District
Public Relations Office was established under Public Health Division
in British India in 1924. This department started functioning at Writers'
Building in Kolkata in the name of Publicity Department under the supervision
of the then Information Department. After partition of 1947 Public Relation
Directorate was created with the combination of Field Publicity and
News and Film Section under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
of the then government of Pakistan. A new section was also opened in
the name of Folksong section. Renowned personalities of literature and
music era viz. Poet Jasim Uddin , singer Abbasuddin, Abdul Alim, Sohrab
Hossain, Abdul Latif, Bederuddin worked in this department .
In 1968
network of Public Relations Department was expanded and a post of District
Public Relation Officer (DPRO) and a Sub-Divisional Public Relation
Officer (SDPRO) were created for every district and sub-division respectively.
Considering the importance of motivating people of grass root level
and implicate them in development activities, the goverment of Bangladesh
under the leadership of Father of the Nation Bangabondhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman established the department of Mass Communication combining public
relation departments Bangladesh Council and women section of Board of
National Reconstruction. Through reconstruction of Department of Mass
Communication in post liberation Bangladesh the important responsibility
to establish a bridge of bondage between government and people has been
vested upon this department since it's inception. With a view to integrate
people with government policies and development programmes, District
Information Offices have been conducting various meetings, seminars,
discussion meetings and documentary film shows. At present multifarious
publicity activities like drama, cultural function, press meeting, children's
fair, community meeting, open space meeting path publicity, courtyard
meeting, distribution of booklets etc. have been added to existing programmes.
On the backdrop
of transforming former sub-divisions into districts Department of Mass
Communication has been reorganized and Sub-Divisional Public Relation
Offices have been converted to District Information Offices. Currently
publicity and motivational activities of this department are being conducted
through 64 District Information Offices and 4 Upazilla Information Offices.