Saturday 22 February 2014

Lok Sabha channel shut down on the eve of Telangana formation gets clearance from Lower House

The Union Government has shut down Lok Sabha channel on 18th February due to Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill 2014 gets Lok Sabha clearance. This bill has opened a homet’s nest on the political front.  
Opposition parties has made allegations on the UPA government of throwing all democratic norms in the dustbins to get the bill cleared I the dark to avoid any public uproar. 

It is not clear till date who took the decision to black out the telecast of vote by voice of the controversial bill. Early reports were that the speaker of the Lok Sabha Meira Kumar ordered the switching off of the cameras and the transmission. But the speaker was silent on this issue. What muddied the waters further was a statement later in the evening by the Lok Sabha secretary general S. Bal Shekar that the switch off happened on account of a technical glitch and that an investigation had been ordered.
During the blackout Lok Sabha TV put out a message that the telecast would resume, but it never did. 
Almost every political party criticised the disruption of the telecast. Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj called it a tactical glitch, even as TMC leader Mamta Banerjee said it smelled of hanky-panky. Telangana opponents called it the death of democracy. 
It is not the first time such blackouts have occurred on government initiated moves. During implementation of Phase I & II of digitisation all media was warned by senior Ministry officials not to permit any adverse remarks or opinions. Infact throughout the period from 01 January 2012 till date not even a single TV channel has carried any programme or discussion on consumer acceptance of the mandated digitisation.

Source:
http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4314-lok-sabha-channel-shut-down-on-the-eve-of-telangana-formation-gets-clearance-from-lower-house.html

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