Calcutta, May 24: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government is planning to rebuild its Nandigram-battered image through advertisements on national television channels.

The principal secretary in the information and culture department, Dilip Chakraborty, said the government was finalising a Rs 40-lakh deal with NDTV to broadcast a 30-minute advertorial on “Resurgent Bengal” in the prime-time slot every evening for three months. Advertorials are advertisements with editorial content.

The channel has been asked to concentrate on Bengal’s success in agriculture and its foray into industry, especially its success stories in food processing and IT.

No mention would be made of the unrest in Singur or Nandigram, though, said a state government official.

“It is best to ignore such issues. There is no point in generating controversy by talking about them.”

The government will book three to five-minute ad slots on Aaj Tak and Zee Sports, too, to plug Bengal’s success in various fields. Agencies will be hired to produce them.

Locks on press

The state government has decided to shut down the loss- making Basumati Press and hand over Rupayan, the sick sound-recording theatre in Salt Lake, to a private company.