Centre saffronising news by appointing Sangh backed agency as Prasar Bharati's news source: Pinarayi
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 26: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday accused the Centre of "saffronisation of news" by designating an allegedly Sangh Parivar-affiliated media agency as the sole news source of state-run broadcaster Prasar Bharati.
The Chief Minister was referring to the Centre's decision to appoint Hindustan Samachar as the sole news source for Prasar Bharati which operates the Doordarshan TV network and Akashvani, also called All India Radio.
Vijayan contended, in a statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), that appointing Hindustan Samachar as the news source for the state-run broadcaster by terminating services of agencies like PTI and UNI amounted to "saffronisation of news".
He alleged that this was a move to bring Doordarshan and Akashvani into the folds of the Sangh Parivar and was therefore a threat to democracy.
Hindustan Samachar was founded by RSS leader Shivram Shankar Apte, also the founder general secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and it has always worked for the Sangh Parivar, Vijayan claimed in the statement.
The Sangh Parivar has been trying to keep Prasar Bharti under its control ever since it came to power, he further claimed.
This, he said, was evident from the Centre's 2020 decision to appoint Jagdish Upasana, the group editor of RSS publications Panchajanya and Organiser, as the chairman of Prasar Bharti's recruitment board.
Besides that, Prasar Bharti showed live RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's Vijayadashami speech, but did not broadcast the Independence day speech of the Chief Minister of Tripura, he claimed.
All this indicates the implementation of the fascist desire that no voice of dissent should be heard, Vijayan alleged and urged the secular democratic society of the country to recognise and protest against this threat to democracy.
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Kumaraswamy to visit Andrew Yule's tea gardens in Assam soon
Guwahati(PTI): Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Monday said he would soon visit tea gardens, owned by public sector enterprise Andrew Yule, to revive its estates as workers are facing immense hardship.
Kumaraswamy, the minister of steel and heavy industries, thanked Assam Industries Minister Bimal Borah for apprising him of various challenges being faced by the tea gardens and the need to support the management to alleviate suffering of workers.
"We are concerned about the economic challenges and hardship of the tea gardens owned by Andrew Yule Group in Assam and its impact on the wage earners," Kumaraswamy said at a press conference here.
The tea garden wage earners will also get a 20 per cent Durga Puja bonus, like workers of other gardens, he said.
Referring to his recent visit to the Cement Corporation of India Ltd factory at Bokajan in Karbi Anglong district, Kumaraswamy said there was a plan for the revival of the cement industry in the state by investing Rs 700 crore.
He also emphasised on the need for a cement manufacturing unit in the northeastern states.
On the current development of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) policy utilisation in Assam, the union minister said more than Rs 2,000 crore would be invested for battery charging stations and nearly 70,000 such facilities will be set up across the country.
More than 18,000 e-buses will also be purchased to fulfil the goal of carbon emission reduction, Kumaraswamy added.
