As the situation was limping back to normalcy in Andhra Pradesh a day after unprecedented violence and attacks on the offices and retail outlets of both the rival Reliance groups, the state government booked a criminal case against a Telugu news channel TV5 for carrying an unverified report linking the names of Mukesh and Anil Ambani to the alleged foul play behind the death of former Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash in September last year.
The state police chief R Girish Kumar, who attended a high level emergency meeting with Chief Minister K Rosaiah to discuss the situation, held the unverified reports by various local channels responsible for triggering the large scale violence, arson and looting.
Girish Kumar said that the police will also investigate the reports carried by these channels. A notice was already served on TV5 and the police officials were going through the videotapes of the reports carried by TV5 on the issue. A top police official said that banning the channel was one of the options being contemplated by them.
After seeing the TV reports the mobs of Congress workers and YSR supporters had come out on the roads and continued targeting the show rooms, retail outlets, offices and other facilities of the two Reliance groups.
However, compared to last night, the situation was peaceful and under control on Friday as police kept a tight vigil.
The state home minister Sabita Indra Reddy said that the police had booked 96 cases all over the state in connection with last night's incidents and arrested 180 people. More arrests were likely to occur.
Stray incidents of violence took place on Friday morning as a mob of Congress workers attacked the office of Reliance Infocom in Nellore and the supporters of former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy held a sit in demonstration in Warangal. The police arrested Congress MLA and former Minister Konda Surekha and her husband Konda Murli, who had given a call for strike.
However, in various other districts including Kadapa and Anantapur, the local Congress leaders who had given a bandh call withdrew it on the intervention of YSR's son and Member of Parliament YS Jaganamohan Reddy.
The reports evoked a strong rebuttal from Reliance Industries which demanded action against those responsible for triggering the violence against them.
Meanwhile, K Rosaiah spoke to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram over phone urging him to expedite the investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigations in to the helicopter crash to allay any suspicions or misgivings among the people over the cause of the accident and death of YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
The CM also came under attack from with in the Congress party as well from the opposition parties for his mishandling of the situation. Former minister Konda Surekha, known to be a loyalist of YSR, lashed out at the CM for not uncovering the truth behind the death of YSR.
The above is just one of the many examples of the media going berserk and reporting things without verifying.
Time and again it has been pointed out by various authorities that the media should behave in a responsible manner but the competition to increase TRPs removes any sense of responsibility from the minds of the news editors.
I would suggest,penalties in the form of that both heavy fines and banning for specific periods should be imposed.
May be, then we may be able to bridle them.
If still they do not behave, their licences to do business should be cancelled permanently
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