The Left parties have jointly lodged a serious complaint to the Election Commission of India regarding paid news during the pre-poll campaign in West Bengal and the way a media house is being used in the electoral interest of a particular political party which, in turn, has been offering financial benefits to it. The Leftist leaders, Sitaram Yechury, A.B.Bardhan, Nilotpal Basu, Abani Roy and S.P.Tewari met the Chief Election Commissioner on April 13 to submit a memorandum in which they reminded him of the EC’s decision to classify the paid news as electoral offence which vitiates the process of free and fair elections.
Referring to a case in particular the memorandum alleged that recently the Kolkata High Court stayed the leasing out of two acres of prime urban land on the Kolkata Eastern Metropolitan Bypass by the Trinamool-controlled Kolkata Municipal Corporation(KMC) to a media house called Pratidin at a price much lower than the market price. When the land price has been soaring high around the Bypass area the Trinamool-controlled KMC, to please the Praditin media house, had agreed to lease out the two acre of land at Rs.5.5 lakh per cottah amounting to only 6.60 crores of rupees. In as early as in 2005 the Left Front-led Kolkata Municipal Corporation transferred 6.29 acres of land at Rs 312 crores.
Now, what is the reason behind the Trinamool-Controlled KMC to lease out land to Pratidin at a much lower price ? The re4ason is simple : Pratidin newspaper is acting as almost an official mouthpiece of the Trinamool Congress Party. Submitting a number of clippings from Pratidin the memorandum submitted to the CEC by the Left leaders said : “ We are confident that any independent study by the EC will brigh out the fact. Apart from this, the media group beingt headed by a Tri8namool MP in Rajya Sabha and the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee being a columnist in the group the newspaper has a bearing on its news coverage. This media group is also currently controlling a Bengali TV channel, Channel 10 which has the same policy towards news coverage.
curtsy-Ganashakti
Referring to a case in particular the memorandum alleged that recently the Kolkata High Court stayed the leasing out of two acres of prime urban land on the Kolkata Eastern Metropolitan Bypass by the Trinamool-controlled Kolkata Municipal Corporation(KMC) to a media house called Pratidin at a price much lower than the market price. When the land price has been soaring high around the Bypass area the Trinamool-controlled KMC, to please the Praditin media house, had agreed to lease out the two acre of land at Rs.5.5 lakh per cottah amounting to only 6.60 crores of rupees. In as early as in 2005 the Left Front-led Kolkata Municipal Corporation transferred 6.29 acres of land at Rs 312 crores.
Now, what is the reason behind the Trinamool-Controlled KMC to lease out land to Pratidin at a much lower price ? The re4ason is simple : Pratidin newspaper is acting as almost an official mouthpiece of the Trinamool Congress Party. Submitting a number of clippings from Pratidin the memorandum submitted to the CEC by the Left leaders said : “ We are confident that any independent study by the EC will brigh out the fact. Apart from this, the media group beingt headed by a Tri8namool MP in Rajya Sabha and the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee being a columnist in the group the newspaper has a bearing on its news coverage. This media group is also currently controlling a Bengali TV channel, Channel 10 which has the same policy towards news coverage.
curtsy-Ganashakti
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