Media-govt war of nerves worsens, sit-in demonstration tomorrow

Agartala, Jul 18, 2011 : The war of attrition between the media and the state’s Left Front government has taken a turn for the worse with the 'Assembly of Journalists', a newly formed outfit to fight for media rights deciding to intensify the ongoing agitation to press for suspension of SP (West) Aneesh Prasad, officer in charge (OC) of East Agartala police station , Narayan Saha and officer in charge of College tilla police outpost Jahangir Hossain from service for committing excesses on media-persons on July 10 when Congress workers and supporters had made a desperate bid to disrupt Central Entrance Test (CET) in MBB college for admission to first year MBBS course in Society run Tripura Medical College (TMC). Altogether eleven media-persons-almost all photographers of local TV news channels and newspapers-had sustained varying degrees of injuries in police assault on them. 

Earlier the leading lights of the Assembly of Journalists had met in deputation with the governor D.Y.Patil seeking his intervention to ensure appropriate punishment for the allegedly guilty police officers after the DGP K.Saleem Ali had pleaded inability in taking action. The governor gave an assurance of doing the needful but there has been no concrete action on the part of the state government till now. 'We held an emergency meeting of the Assembly of Journalists and decided to launch a sit-in demonstration in all district and subdivisional towns of the state; here in Agartala we will organize the sit-in demonstration while in district and subdivisional towns correspondents of local newspapers and TV channels will participate in the programme ' said Jayanta Bhattacharya in a press conference last in Agartala Press Club. After the daylong sit-in demonstration tomorrow the Assembly will organize a candle-light procession at Agartala on July 23 as part of the phased agitational programme demanding punishment for guilty police officers and guarantee of security for media-persons working in Tripura. 

So far , the officer in charge of West Agartala police station Manindra Debnath and in charge of College Tilla outpost Jahangir Hossain have been transferred but Narayan Saha , officer in charge of East Agartala police station which covers the College Tilla area and SP (West) Aneesh Prasad have remained in place . No comments on the issue of transfers were made by senior officials of state police.