SUV from RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's convoy overturns in bid to save cow, CISF jawan injured
Mumbai, May 16: A vehicle that was part of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's convoy overturned in an attempt to save a cow standing in the middle of the road near Warora in Chandrapur district, in which one of his security personnel was injured, police said.
Bhagwat, who is a 'Z category' protectee, was traveling from Chandrapur to Nagpur, when the driver of an SUV in his convoy spotted the stationary cow on the road, police said.
"The driver tried to avoid the cow and braked hard, which resulted in a tyre burst and the vehicle toppling over," a senior officer said, adding that the cow was unhurt in the incident that took place at 5.15 pm near Warora on the Chandrapur-Nagpur highway.
Bhagwat's car had already passed the cow, but a vehicle in the same convoy coming from behind met with this accident, he said.
"There were six CISF personnel in the SUV, of which one got injured due to toppling over of the vehicle," an official said, adding the SUV was registered in Uttar Pradesh.
Rest of the convoy proceeded as per schedule and the injured security official was shifted to Nagpur for treatment, police said.
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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 Its role in determining how ratings agencies track viewing behaviour has been withdrawn.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.
