CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress has blamed Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for shut down of ABP Saanjh Punjabi news channel in Punjab leaving hundereds of youth unemployed and helpless. Sukhpal Singh Khaira Spokesperson of PPCC today in a statement said that while Sukhbir Badal was making false promises of creating 1.5 lakh job opportunities at the “Make in Punjab” session with industrialists in Delhi on Thursday, his draconian government was pressurizing Amrita Bazar Patrika (ABP) group of media to wind up its operations, to launch a Punjabi channel in the state. There is no point in holding such meaningless and bogus industrial summits to allure investment for Punjab, when the existing industrial houses are being threatened, coerced and pushed out of the state. Khaira said that as we are aware, ABP group is one of the oldest media hoses of the country. The ABP Sanjha had begun operations to launch a regional Punjabi channel since 2011 onwards. For this they had selected Mohali as their headquarters and recruited more than 500 young boys and girls for various jobs, from administration to ground reporting. Hundreds of crores of investment had been made towards setting up of the channel during the last three years. Although, ABP Sanjha never appeared on the national network, but they had been constantly working full time through social media. ABP Sanjha was playing a very pro active role to unearth various scandals and was highlighting the anti people policies of the SAD-BJP government. He stated that these independent and impartial activities of ABP Sanjha were totally unacceptable to the junior Badal, who began to see a direct competition and threat to his family run PTC channel. Misusing the levers of power at his command, the junior Badal started pressurizing the ABP media house to pull out of Punjab. Unable to face the threatening and attacking mode of the Badal clan, the ABP shut complete operations from Punjab, rendering the said 500 youngsters jobless with one stroke. Satyakki Bhattachajee a senior representative of the ABP while shutting operations from Punjab tweeted on Wednesday, “Very sad and very angry at the same time. Death of journalism in Punjab”. This strong comment has once again vindicated our allegations that the Badals have hijacked the cable and channel network trade in Punjab. Earlier, the same discriminatory treatment was meted out to the other Punjabi channel “Day and Night News” operating from Chandigarh, merely because they had the courage to compete with PTC channel. It is pertinent to mention here, that Mr. Badal was in the forefront to oppose emergency in 1975, when censorship had been imposed upon the media by the then Indira Gandhi government. But now he and his arrogant son, have left no stone unturned to completely gag and muffle the voice of media in the state. Congress terms it murder of journalism in Punjab, as it is one of four vital pillars of the democracy. By forcing the ABP Sanjha to leave Punjab, the junior Badal has added to the already monstrous problem of unemployment. Therefore, the Congress urges Sukhbir Badal to apologize to ABP group and request them to re-start operations, so that the 500 families are not left in the lurch with a bleak future.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 12:34:06 +0000
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