Dalit man made to spend Rs 11K on feast for entering temple in Karnataka
Koppal, Sep 25: Close on the heels of a Dalit family being penalised Rs 25,000 over their two-year-old son entering a temple in Kustagi, a Dalit man was forced to arrange a feast spending Rs 11,000 for entering a Lakshmi Devi temple in a village at Karatagi about 11 days ago, a police officer said.
"Yes, it is true that the man spent Rs 11,000 to arrange feast for entering the temple. Our officers are investigating the matter," superintendent of Police T Sreedhara told PTI on Saturday.
According to him, the incident came to light only on Friday and since then the temple management led by the priest raised an alarm and forced the man to organise the feast.
Sreedhara said a few months ago, a theft had taken place in the village and it was decided that no one should enter the temple except the priest.
However, the Dalit man, whose identity has been withheld, entered as he had taken a vow to conduct some rituals.
On September 14, he entered the temple ignoring the collective decision taken by the elders of the village.
Other police sources said eight people have been detained in this connection.
The incident was a stark reminder of the September 4 incident when a Dalit family belonging to the Chenna Dasar community was harassed and asked to pay Rs 25,000 as penalty after their two-year-old son entered the temple in Miyapur village under Kushatagi police station limits in Koppal.
Five people were arrested in connection with the incident and several awareness meetings were held to educate masses against the evil of caste based discrimination.
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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.
