Presspersons barred from secretariat

By Barun Das Gupta

GUWAHATI, MARCH 22. A jittery Assam Government, faced with mounting agitation by its employees demanding payment of their monthly salary, took it out on the Press today by making the entire Secretariat complex at Dispur out of bounds for the Press, including correspondents accredited by the State Government itself.

Security personnel manning the main gate of the Janata Bhavan which houses the State Cabinet told reporters on their daily round that they had orders not to allow pressmen to enter. Showing them the press accrediation card one got the curt answer that there was a blanket ban on entry of pressmen and possession of the accreditation card made no difference.

The State Director of Information and Public Relations, Mr. M. K. Deb, said he had no knowledge or information about prohibiting entry of journalists in the Secretariat. He inquired from the Home Department but nobody there could throw any light. He telephoned an official in the Chief Minister's office but that gentleman also seemed totally in the dark.

This was the curious part of the matter: nobody was prepared to own the responsibility of issuing such an order nor enlighten the scribes as to who had issued it. Those who could have spoken authoritatively, like the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary, chose to keep themselves incommunicado.

Today was the first day of the three-day ceasework by the Government employees who have not yet been paid their salary for February. While the Government claimed that attendance was 94 per cent which was ``much above normal'', the SAKP made the counter- claim that all sections of employees had fully responded to the call.

On an earlier occasion, when agitating employees were being lathicharged in front of the Chief Secretary's office, policemen snatched cameras from cameramen covering the incident and exposed the films to prevent publication of the ``action'' photographs the next day.

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Section  : Regional
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