Centre gags Andhra media ahead of Telangana report

By gagging the Telugu TV news channels not to sensationalise the Justice Srikrishna Committee report, the United Progressive Alliance government indicated that it would treat Telangana committee report at par with how it handled the controversial Ayodhya judgment of the Allahabad high court.

Centre has brought the National Broadcasters Association to impress upon the 48 Telugu TV news channels to adhere to the dos and don'ts of NBA.

Centre also convened an emergency meeting of top officials of the eight departments to handle a possible break in law and order in Andhra Pradesh.

The Union government is in a tizzy over an imminent release of the 5-member Justice (retd) B N Srikrishna committee report on carving a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, three days ahead of the
promised submission to the Union home ministry on December 31 at 5 pm.

Centre on Monday issued strict warnings to 48 Telugu News Channels and  4,800 cable operators in Andhra Pradesh to obey the Cable Operators Act 1995.

The National Broadcasting Association has come out with 20 points dos and don'ts while telecasting sensitive issues on the Srikrishna Committee report.

Union Home Secretary G K Pillai held a high level meeting to review the situation after the submission of Telangana report to government.

Information Broadcasting Secretary Raghu Menon was in constant touch  with government of Andhra Pradesh over the issue.

Speculation became rife in New Delhi on Monday about the report's release as the 69-year old former Supreme Court judge Srikrishna sought an  appointment of the committee with Home Minister P Chidambaram at noon
on Tuesday and convened a press conference later at 4.30 pm to interact with the national media in the Ambedkar Hall of Andhra Bhawan, the state government guest house in New Delhi.

Messages went out to the media that the full bench of the Srikrishna  Committee, which includes Prof Ranbir Singh, Dr Abusaleh Shariff, Ravinder Kaur and member-secretary Vinod K Duggal, a former home  secretary, would like to have an interaction with the media.

The government is totally non-plus, unable to find out what Justice  Srikrishna wants to do by meeting the press as it may trigger an  immediate law and order problem in Andhra Pradesh even if he does not release the report on Tuesday but responds to tricky questions, particularly when Andhra Pradesh is already on the boil over past one week in expectation of the committee report.

Only last week, Secretary Pillai had chaired a high-level meeting of six secretaries to government of India and the railway board chairman to chalk out measures for handling the possible law and order fallout of the committee findings as there may be strikes, bandhs and even violence. The chief secretary and the director general of police of Andhra Pradesh were also present at the meeting.

Information and broadcasting secretary was specially called to the meeting to decide how to ensure the electronic media does not play up the report and speculates on it, triggering trouble in Andhra Pradesh, as the government wants to handle the media reporting on the same footings on which the Ayodhya judgement was tackled without any violence anywhere.

The state government has been told to make use of the Cable Operators Act of 1995 to cancel licenses of the operators who telecast the Telangana committee report sensationally and seal their communication headquarters.

There are over 5,000 cable operators in Andhra Pradesh. Besides 48 Telugu channels, there are many entertainment channels that will be kept under close scrutiny as they usually telecast public meetings and news that are not allowed under the law.

The district magistrates must act against them, the state government has been told.