| 9 months on, Early Times without Govt advts; staffers stage silent-protests outside DIPR office | | Is writing against corruption a sin, ask protesters | |  Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 1: Stating that the Directorate of Information and Public Relations has pushed them to edge, the staffers of the daily Early Times on Wednesday staged protests here against the DIPR for stopping government advertisements to the English newspaper.
Holding placards, the ET employees including those from the Editorial, Human Resource and Printing Press held a silent sit-in outside the DIPR office here.
The staffers, who later submitted a memorandum to the Director Information, said that by stopping government advertisements, the backbone of revenue for the local dailies, the DIPR has made things difficult for them.
Invoking the vision of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi of corruption-free governance in Jammu and Kashmir, the ET employees said that DIPR policy was going against the national agenda on deliverance of good governance in the Union Territory.
“Much against the idea of Naya Jammu and Kashmir as envisioned by honorable, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi Ji, over hundred employees of the Jammu-based daily Early Times have been pushed to the brink by the Directorate of Information & Public Relations, Govt of J&K,” the employees said in the memorandum.
“The DIPR has stopped government advertisements to the Early Times. Whereas since the change of guard we were already getting symbolic number of advertisements from the government but these have been stopped altogether for the last nine odd months,” the protesters said.
“Given the fact that in cash starved J&K, where government advertisements are the main source of revenue for the local dailies, the step motherly treatment as meted with the Early Times has badly affected the economic condition of its employees,” the memorandum added.
“While the Early Times since its inception is known for its nationalist policy and this newspaper has been the pioneer in writing against the anti-national forces, instead of being rewarded, we are being choked,” the ET staff maintained.
“We want to know that the DIPR is unwilling to restore our due share of advertisements unless we stop writing against corruption and maladministration in the dispensation in Jammu and Kashmir. Well this policy goes against the vision of honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wants an end to over seven decades of corruption in Jammu and Kashmir. If writing against corruption and exposing the corrupt is a crime, we are the proud criminals,” the staffers observed.
In an appeal to the DIPR, they said: “We request your chair do justice with the vision of Modi Ji and restore our share of advertisements, which is our legitimate right. By doing so you will not only end injustice but also contribute in nation building by coming to the rescue of the newspaper, which believes in Honorable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi Ji’s mantra: Na Khawunga Na Khane Dunga!”
It’s pertinent to mention that the government of Jammu and Kashmir has stopped the advertisements to this nationalist daily, which is already on the radar of the terror groups for its policy against anti-national elements, who had been taking the democracy almost hostage for the last around three decades since the eruption of militancy. |
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