Guwahati: The issue of much discussed coal mafia-media nexus in Assam
has reached Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi as a city based
nationalist scribe has sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra
Modi urging for a probe into the matter involving illegal tax
collections in tune of crores of rupees. The PMO has already sent its
acceptance message (PMOPG/E/2020/0978435) digitally.
Journalist Biswajit Nath in his memorandum appealed to PM Modi to take
‘personal interest in asking Assam government to conduct an authentic
probe so that the media fraternity can be cleaned up and punish the
culprits under the laws’. He pointed out that the Sarbananda
Sonowal-led government often asserts on zero-tolerance to corruption
police and hence it should punish the culprits.
The development started with a payment-list of lakhs of rupees per
month to some Guwahati and Silchar based prominent media houses and
individuals involved with the medium that went viral in social media.
The sheet of paper marked a list of beneficiaries among many satellite
news channels (Pratidin Time, Assam Talks, Prag News, News Live, NE
Live) and newspapers (Niyamiya Barta, Jugasankha, Dainik Prantajyoti,
Navabarta Prasanga, Samayik Prasanga, etc).
Written as confidential and claimed to be prepared on 21 October 2020,
the unauthenticated list also mentioned a press association in
Guwahati as the recipient of monthly contributions (read protection
money) from the coal carrying truckers. Moreover, it named Sanjib
Jaiswal (presumably the owner of news channel DY365) and Manoj Nath
(president of Gauhati Press Club) with a few others along with the
Cachar police, Karimganja police (in Assam) and Meghalaya police
personnel as due beneficiaries.
Once the issue came to the public domain through social media, many
digital media outlets inside and outside the region covered the issue.
Similarly, two State based important media bodies came out with the
statements of concerns as the development was harmful to the
collective image of mainstream media. Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA)
expressed serious concern over the exposure and appealed to all
concerned media persons (who were named in the list) to clarify their
stand effectively.
On the other hand, Press Club of Assam (PCA) demanded a high level
probe into the matter. Urging State chief minister Sonowal, it pointed
out that the enquiry became necessary for both the State media and
the government to maintain their fair images. However, the concerned
media managements continue to remain silent over the matter not to
speak of their much needed clarifications till date.
पूरे प्रकरण को समझने के लिए ये मूल खबर पढ़ें-
एक और उगाही लिस्ट वायरल, देखिए मीडिया-पुलिस के लोग रंगदारी कितना कितना पाते हैं!
