NEW DELHI: The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) has empanelled a total of 3703 newspapers for the purpose of public service advertisements.

According to statistics made available by the DAVP, it covers newspapers in 24 languages.

Of these 2355 are in Hindi, 304 in English, 259 in Urdu, 146 in Gujarati, 112 in Marathi and 102 in Telugu. 

Others include Oriya (76), Malayalam (73), Punjabi (69), Tamil (65), Bengali (54), Kannada (31), Assamese (22), Sindhi (14), and three in Mizo, apart from four each in Khasi, Manipuri and Nepali, and one each in Dogri, Garhwali, Konkani, Naga, Rajasthani, and Sanskrit.

The DAVP under the New Advertisement Policy is expected to pay the advertisement bill within 60 days of receipt of the advertisement. Clause 22 of the Policy says every newspaper shall submit their bills, complete in all respects and supported with relevant documents, within 60 days of publication of the advertisement.