The Jammu and Kashmir Government takes over Kashmir Press Club, cancels land allotment
- In Reports
- 09:16 PM, Jan 18, 2022
- Myind Staff
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday cancelled the allotment of building and land which housed Srinagar’s Kashmir Press Club.
The club, which has over 300 members, has been shut since Saturday, when a rival group of journalists barged in and declared themselves to be the “interim body”.
The government said that it wanted to avoid a law and order situation after “rival groups levelled various allegations against each other”. The premises have been handed over back to the estates department.
The government had faced criticism after the forcible takeover of the KPC premises by a group of journalists led by M Salim Pandit and accompanied by armed policemen on Saturday.
The Editors Guild of India termed the forcible takeover by the group a ‘coup’ while former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti went on to tag it as a “state-sponsored coup”.
“…The rival groups have been levelling various allegations against each other also with regard to the use of the premises belonging to the estates department that was being used for the legitimate use of the members of the journalistic fraternity. In view of this aspect of the dispute and in view of the reports in social media and other sources indicating a potential law and order situation, including a threat of breach of peace and the safety of bona fide journalists, the intervention has become necessary,” the government said in a statement issued through the information department.
Nine journalists’ bodies of Kashmir, including the elected Kashmir Press Club body, had termed the takeover as “illegal and arbitrary”.
The government statement said the KPC as a registered body has ceased to exist and its managing body, too, has come to a legal closure on July 14, 2021, the date on which its tenure came to an end.
It said in view of the “dissensions between various groups of journalists, it has been decided that the allotment of the premises at Polo View in view of the now deregistered Kashmir Press Club be cancelled and control of land and buildings situated at Polo View, Srinagar, which belongs to the estates department be reverted to the said department”.
“The government is committed to a free and fair press…and also hopes that a duly registered bona fide society of all journalists shall be constituted as soon as possible and the same shall be able to approach the government for reallocation of the premises,” the statement said.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said in a tweet, “It seems that the coup and its aftermath was entirely orchestrated to shut down another outlet that served as a medium for journalists to debate and discuss their opinions freely. With every passing day, all the safety valves to express dissent are being muzzled.”
Image credit: PTI
Comments