Brand ambassadors Virat Kohli, Sonu Nigam on paper, nowhere to be seen

DEHRADUN: Tashi-Nungshi, Virat Kohli, Sonu Nigam and now Dilrajpreet Kaur. The Uttarakhand government might have many names in the lists of brand ambassadors for various departments but the enthusiasm slackens off soon after each high-profile announcement.
The impromptu decision of making Dilrajpreet Kaur the ambassador of AYUSH department by the CM came as a surprise even to the department.“We were not prepared for such an announcement. But we will surely look fix the agenda soon,” said a senior official. However, unlike Kaur’s case, there have been examples when a department had announced brand ambassadors after considering the achievements of a person, but still the output was unimpressive.
The state health department had made the twin sisters, Tashi and Nungshi Malik, their ambassador in January. Soon after they had scaled all the highest peaks on the seven continents, the department had approached them to be the face of the ‘Beti Bacaho Andolan’ for Dehradun district, under the PCPNDT (Pre Conception, Pre Natal Diagnostic Technique) Act.
Interestingly, as per officials, the girls have not been invited to any of the programmes or workshops conducted by the district health department. “After a mere announcement and a small felicitation program, no thought has been given by the department to any kind of awareness programmes to capitalize on them. They were not even called for a banner photo-shoot. The government should have done something to prove that they are serious about the whole concept,” said V S Malik, father of the twins.
Similarly, Virat Kohli was made the brand ambassador in April for the state tourism department. Kohli has done one TV commercial and has not even visited the state after the announcement, as the department failed to organize an invite for him. Sources in the department associate this with Kohli’s “busy cricket schedule”.