CHANDIGARH: The Government has started construction work on a swimming pool for journalists at the Chandigarh Press Club while it announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh for the library of the Ropar Bar Association. The government also announced its plan to build 35 chambers for advocates at Ropar.
These measures are aimed at evidently at neutralizing the journalists and advocates who have been agitating against the Punjab Government for their action against Punjabi newspapers of Jalandhar notably Ajit and to seek the transfer of Deputy Commissioner and Senior Superintendent of Police of Ropar district for arresting six advocates.
The advocates of Ropar struck work for about 50 days to seek transfer of the two senior district officers but the State government was in no mood to accept the demand on the ground that morale of security forces and the civil administration would fall.
The journalists of Chandigarh staged a dharna in front of Raj Bhavan to protest against the seizure of Ajit and its printing Press by the police more than once in recent days. They were further planning sustained agitation against the government. But the grant of swimming pool project appears to have silenced them for the present.
Interestingly Punjab’s two premier English dailies. Tribune and Indian Express who had been vociferous about curbs on the Press in far off places like Bihar and Tamil Nadu have not written even one editorial on the repeated confiscation of Ajit and other Punjabi dailies of Jullundur by the Punjab administration. These newspapers are edited by Pundit V.N.Narayanan and Lala Prem Kumar. Pundit Naraynan is also the winner of Lala Jagat Narain award for journalism instituted by certain Hindu journalists of Kurukshetra.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 22, 1991
