National
Use information for society reconstruction: PM
By Our Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI, DEC. 5. The Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, today laid the foundation stone for the National Press Centre - the second time within the past 10 years - at 7 Raisina Road here in the presence of several of his Cabinet colleagues and senior members of the journalistic fraternity.
While the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, presided over the function, the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Ms. Sushma Swaraj, and the Minister of State, Mr. Ramesh Bains, the Union Minister for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, Mr. Ananth Kumar, performed the ``bhoomi- pooja''.
Hoping that the construction work would begin soon and the project would not be held up as it happened last time, Mr. Vajpayee said the centre would fulfil a critical need of the society by providing the right information at its source.
Taking a dig at mediapersons, he said ``while information is always pure at its source, it gets distorted along the way.'' Journalists, he added, were very efficient in doing so. Nevertheless, information was critical and ``it should be used for reconstruction of society''.
In his brief address, Mr. Advani said he could very well appreciate the need for such a press centre. ``Mr. Vajpayee and I have been journalists and we understand their role in society,'' he added.
Ms. Sushma Swaraj said, ``I am happy that a project which could not take off during the Eighth and Ninth Five Year Plan periods despite availability of funds has ultimately taken off''.
Mr. Ananth Kumar said the centre will have video- conferencing facility and workrooms with internet-enabled stations. He hoped ``it will become the centre of press freedom and press articulation in this part of the world''.
'Difficulties start only after shilanyas'
NEW DELHI, DEC. 5. The Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, today said if one does not start construction immediately after ``shilanyas'' difficulties invariably crop up in a project. Speaking in a lighter vein after laying the foundation stone for the National Press Centre here, he said, ``Difficulties start only after shilanyas. At least this has happened once. Now the foundation stone (shilanyas) might be lying in dust in some office of the Archaeological Department.''
The Prime Minister's apparent reference was to the ``shilanyas'' performed by his predecessor, Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao, for the press centre in 1994. He was responding to the
Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ms. Sushma Swaraj's speech earlier in which she said that her Ministry was able to perform the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Rs. 30 crore project in a record three months. The scheme had been pending for the last 10 years.
The Prime Minister advised Ms. Swaraj, to ensure that the construction of the press centre was completed expeditiously, so that he would be able to participate in its inauguration. - PTI
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