Tripura journalists to launch agitation against attacks on Fourth Estate

AGARTALA: Various media organisations and a cross section of journalists on Saturday threatened to launch a massive movements from next week against the continued attacks on media in Tripura.

Some miscreants on Saturday snatched 51 packets comprising over 6,000 newspapers of the leading vernacular daily 'PratibadiKalam' at Udaipur in southern Tripura forcing the media groups and journalists of different ages met the senior police officials and demanded immediate arrest of the culprits.

Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who also holds the Home, Information and Cultural Affairs Department, and Law and Education Minister RatanLalNath spoke to the owner and Editor of "PratibadiKalam" Anal Roy Chowdhury about the incident.

"Both the Chief Minister and the Law Minister assured me to take appropriate actions against the culprits," said Roy Chowdhury.

A delegation of the 'Forum for Development and Protection of Media Community' (FDPMC) led by its convener SebakBhattacharjee and Agartala Press Club Secretary ParanabSarkar met Deputy Inspector General (Southern Range) SoumitraDhar and Gomati district police chief Lucky Chauhan and urged them to nab the guilty immediately.

Chauhan said that in the FIR of the incident the name of the wrongdoers were not mentioned. "However, we have launch a massive search to arrest the people responsible for the crime," she said.

The 'Tripura Assembly of Journalists' (TAJ), which spearheaded the agitations since September 13 against several attacks on journalists and Chief Minister's alleged threat to the media, announced to launch a State-wide agitation from next week against the attacks on the media by the miscreants.

TAJ convener SekharDatta in a statement said that the organised assault on the "PratibadiKalam" has been continuing over the past few days since the newspaper started exposing "a massive Rs 150 crore scandal in the agriculture department of the state government".

Meanwhile, Tripura Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Department Director Deba Prasad Sarkar while briefing the media on Saturday said that the news appeared about the reported scam of Rs 150 crore was totally false and misleading. (IANS)

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