Goa CM has tough task of running coalition govt: Nitin Gadkari
"By-election results directly linked to Goa government's stability"
Panaji, May 16: Union minister Nitin Gadkari Thursday said Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant faces the tough task of running the coalition government in the state, as keeping all the alliance partners together is a challenge.
Gadkari, who was in Goa to address the party's public meeting in support of candidate Siddharth Kunkolienkar for the Panaji bypoll, said the stability of the government was an important criterion for Goa's future development as envisaged by late chief minister Manohar Parrikar.
The by-election to Panaji Assembly segment is scheduled to take place on May 19.
"While taking ahead the vision of Parrikar, the journey of chief minister Pramod Sawant is not going to be easy," he said, adding that it may be difficult for him to keep all the alliance partners together.
"Goa's pace of development will face hurdles if there is instability in the state. The results of this election (Panaji by-election) is directly linked to the stability of the government," the minister said.
Recalling the time when Parrikar agreed to resign as the Defence minister and take over the reigns of the state after the 2017 Goa Assembly elections, Gadkari said the late CM had done a great sacrifice for the people of the state by giving up the post in central cabinet.
He said he was personally against Parrikar's return to Goa politics.
"But Parrikar had Goa in his heart. He always wanted to work for the people of the state," Gadkari said.
The by-election to Panaji Assembly constituency is necessitated due to the death of Parrikar on March 17, 2019.
Taking a dig at the Congress, Gadkari said the opposition party has fielded a candidate who has all the qualities.
The minister was referring to the criminal cases, including rape, against Congress's Panaji bypoll candidate Atanasio Monserratte.
He also said that former Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar is contesting on the Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM) ticket to defeat the BJP candidate, "which is unfortunate.''
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Union government assumes full control over TV ratings, TRAI role curtailed: Report
New Delhi: The Union government has assumed full control over television audience measurement, removing the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from oversight of the ratings system that underpins the country’s ₹36,000 crore television advertising market, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The report in Mint said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) now has exclusive authority over the framework governing how television ratings are measured and regulated. TRAI had been entrusted with oversight of TV ratings in 2012 during the UPA government’s tenure. TRAI is no longer mentioned in the relevant policy document, effectively vesting sole authority in the MIB.
The report said TRAI will continue to regulate other aspects of broadcasting, including channel pricing, advertising caps, interconnection and distribution norms, service quality and compliance standards. Its role in determining how ratings agencies track viewing behaviour has been withdrawn.
Television Rating Points (TRPs), which reflect viewership patterns, guide advertisers in deciding where to allocate spending across channels and time slots.
A government source quoted in the report said the ministry could modify TRAI’s decisions even when the regulator oversaw broadcasting.
A former CEO of Prasar Bharati told the newspaper that the MIB has historically regulated rating agencies through licensing and guidelines, and by holding them accountable under existing norms.
During its tenure overseeing ratings, TRAI had taken decisions affecting the broadcast sector, which included capping advertising time at 12 minutes per hour following complaints about excessive commercial breaks and it now remains unclear how these matters will be addressed under the revised arrangement.
Satya N. Gupta, former principal advisor at TRAI, was quoted as saying that merging regulatory functions with policy oversight and removing an independent regulator from the process was a retrograde step.
TRAI’s involvement in broadcasting had earlier attracted criticism as well. In 2012, its consultation paper on quantitative limits on television advertising was viewed by some as overlapping with the Advertising Standards Council of India’s code. Subsequent recommendations covering television audience measurement, ownership of news channels and issues such as paid news had also raised concerns among sections of the industry.
Television ratings have faced scrutiny in recent years, including during the controversy involving the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), where officials of the ratings body were prosecuted over allegations of manipulation of viewership data.
