The Hindu : Journalists thrown out of ADB workshop

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 22, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Journalists thrown out of ADB workshop

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM APRIL 21. Senior officials of Government on Sunday threw out journalists from the `Strategic Planning Workshop on the Modernising Government Project', which is deliberating on matters connected to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan to the State.

The officials asked reporters to leave after they had reached Kovalam, near here, on an invitation from the Institute of Management in Government — one of the organisers of the workshop.

The Institute had invited reporters on Saturday to cover the three-day workshop and had offered to provide several documents relating to the ADB loan to be presented at the workshop.

The institute had also informed the press that the Chief Secretary, V. Krishnamoorthy, and the Planning Board Chairman, V. Ramachandran, would be present at the workshop so that this would be a good opportunity for the press to understand the project.

However, presspersons who reached the venue were summarily told to go out of the hall by the Planning Board Chairman. The Secretary (Resources), K. M. Abraham, also insisted that the presspersons should leave the hall. He said that they would be issued releases outside the hall.

When presspersons protested, Dr. Abraham said that he did not know that the press had been invited to the workshop. He claimed that there was nothing secretive about the whole workshop and the press could sit through it, if they wished.

However, the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Gopalkrishna Pillai, came out and said the press could just cover the inauguration. However, reporters, who had travelled from Thiruvananthapuram to Kovalam to learn more about project, left without covering the so-called inauguration.

Senior Secretaries to the Government, subject experts from the Institute of Management in Government and senior officials from Government of India, the Asian Development Bank and The Royal Netherlands Embassy are attending the workshop.

Interestingly, public accountability, ensuring transparency in administration, especially in matters concerning information, and norms and procedures used for decisions are among the topics proposed to be discussed at the workshop which is being called a `retreat' by the Government officials.

It may be recalled that the Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, had promised full transparency regarding the availing of the loan from the ADB and its conditions.

However, officials are understood to be planning to make a mockery of this by releasing some correspondence between the previous Government and the ADB instead of the documents exchanged between the Bank and the Government and the reports of the consultants and costs.

The Kerala Union of Working Journalists urged the Chief Minister to inquire about the conduct of the senior officials at the workshop and take suitable action.

The district president of the union, K. Kunhikannan, said that never before had the presspersons been abused by officials this way. It was blot on democracy in the enlightened State of Kerala.

He noted that the reporters had reached Kovalam Guest House on a special invitation to cover the workshop.

It was clear that the action of the senior officials was also intended to befoul the image of the Chief Minister who was repeatedly stating that the transparency would be maintained in matters relating to the ADB loan.

It also raised doubts whether bureaucrats were being allowed to have a stranglehold on democratic institutions.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

Journalists thrown out of ADB workshop

Latex's female condoms