Emergency in Visakhapatnam? Press gag withdrawn

By Vijay Kumar

Bureaucratic arrogance knows no bounds. The Vizag District Collector who is embroiled in a land scam did what any autocrat would love to. He issued a diktat that press reports against IAS and IPS officers should be published only after clearance from a screening committee. The Collector believes he has the power to control the press under Section 144 of the Cr.PC. Fortunately the Collector who would have been a very successful officer had he been in the IAS in 1975, did not get much support from his political boss the Chief Minister. Embarrassed by the episode, Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy intervened and sought an explanation from District Collector Praveen Prakash. In a statement, Dr. Reddy said such orders had no place in a democracy. The poor Collector had to withdraw his orders.