Accredited journalists left; Unaccredited invited
IMPACT
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Notwithstanding the clarification given by the J&K Government over a story published in STATE TIMES on January 28 under caption “Favouritism in invite list mars Governor’s At Home,” reports are pouring in that some prominent accredited correspondents were given a miss in the invitation list for this year’s At Home hosted by Governor N N Vohra at Convention Centre instead of Raj Bhawan due to inclement weather.
Sources told STATE TIMES that an RTI activist has sought complete list of invitees to the function, particularly in the backdrop of reports suggesting that 1700 invitation cards were printed while the full capacity of the CM’s Banquet Hall or the Convention Centre, least to speak of Raj Bhawan, is not more than 900.
Questions are being asked as to who had complied the lists of media and prominent persons , representatives of various organizations, social activists, etc and whether these lists had been shared with the host Raj Bhawan.
Sources privy to Raj Bhawan have revealed to STATE TIMES that a detailed report has been sought especially about the media persons and the criterion adopted in making pick and choose of the invitees that left some prominent accredited correspondents and prominent citizens.
Meanwhile, Governor N N Vohra on Saturday noted with deep regret that a large number of invited officers did not attend the Republic Day celebration’s ‘At Home’ ceremony.
It was also noted that all those who were absent did not even care to convey their inability to attend the function, a Raj Bhawan spokesperson said.
The Governor has desired that the Chief Minister may be apprised about the aforesaid matter and stressed that if the state has to achieve its goals all government employees need to be visibly disciplined, particularly those at the senior echelons of the state, he said.
The Governor’s Secretariat had invited senior officers up to the level of special secretary and heads of departments stationed at Jammu to attend the ‘At Home’ at 4.00 PM on Januray 26, the spokesperson said.
“The state government had issued a circular on January 10 to all departments to impress upon all officers of the state government and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) stationed at Jammu to attend the R-Day celebrations as part of their official duty,” he said.
The order also stated that failure to attend the function will be construed as dereliction of duty and disobedience of government instructions, the spokesperson said.
Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Kumar Singh, Legislative Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta, Chairman Legislative Council Haji Inayat Ali among others attended the programme, an Information department release said.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Leader of Opposition Omar Abduallah, some Ministers and top IAS and IPS officials were absent from the function.
Meanwhile, responding to news item titled “Favoritism in invite list mars Governor’s At Home” published in today’s edition of ‘STATE TIMES’, an official spokesman has stated that all the prominent and credible media personalities from the State were invited for the At Home,” he said.
To set the records straight, the spokesman said that the list of editors to whom the invitation cards for ‘At Home’ were sent by the Raj Bhavan included Raj Daluja (Editor, State Times), Kamal Rohmetra (Editor, Daily Excelsior), Prabodh Jamwal (Editor, Kashmir Times), Arun Joshi (Resident Editor, The Tribune), Fayaz Ahmad Kaloo (Editor, Greater Kashmir), Dr Shujaat Bukhari (Editor, Rising Kashmir), Vicky Mahajan (Editor, Himalayan Mail), Bansi Lal Gupta (Editor, Early Times), Bashir Ahmad Bashir (Editor, Srinagar Times), Capt Murti Gupta (Editor, Greater Jammu), Amit Sawhney (Editor, Journey Line), Masood Hussain (Editor, Kashmir Life), Syed Iqbal Qazmi (Editor, Daily Udaan), Abhimanyu Sharma (Resident Editor, Dainik Jagran), Zafar Choudhary (Editor, The News Now), Gurjeet Singh (Editor, The Latest), Sohail Kazmi (Editor, Daily Taskeen), Aditya Malhotra (Editor Kashmir Images Jammu), Kuldeep Gupta (Editor, Daily Imarat), Begum Imrana Simnani (Editor, Daily Sandesh) and Suresh Magotra (Editor, Daily Mandate).
Similarly, the accredited journalists who were invited by the Raj Bhavan for ‘At Home’ included Vivek Sharma (Principal Correspondent, State Times), Ahmad Ali Fayyaz (Srinagar Bureau Chief, State Times), Anil Bhat (PTI), Mohammad Aslam (KNS), Satnam Singh (Dainik Jagran), Sanjeev Pargal ( Daily Excelsior), Mohit Kandhari (The Pioneer), Suchismita (Kashmir Times), Sominder Koul ( ANI), Sheikh Zffar Iqbal (NDTV), Vijay Malla (KIP), Ashwani Kumar (AajTak), Ajay Bachloo ( Star News), Pradeep Dutta (Times Now), Raju Kerni (Zee News), Sameer Ji Bhat (ETV), Ravi Khajuria (Hindustan Times), Faheem Tak (Take One Channel), Vishal Bharti (UNI), Raman Saini (India TV), Arun Sharma (Indian Express), Naresh Baghat (Early Times), Shahnawaz Khan (News Nation), Yogesh Sagotra (Greater Kashmir), Naresh Kumar (Hind Samachar), Dr Balram Saini (Punjab Kesri), Vinod Sharma (Gulistan/JK Channel),. Amit Kumar Verma (Amar Ujala), Mohit Gupta (Nav Jammu), Syed Amjad Shah (Rising Kashmir ), Nitin Kanotra (Hindustan Times), Channi Anand (Associated Press), J P Bandral (EPA), Afzal Shah (Udaan), Darshan Kumar ( NDTV), Rajnish Parihan (P-7 News Channel), Rajendra Arora ( News Point), Saleem Pandit (Times of India), Rashid Rahi (CNS), Dinesh Manhotra (The Tribune), Sanjay Sharma (Times of India), Ashok Pahalwan (Scoop News), Sandeep Bhat (Early Times) and Mohammad Moazzam (Kashmir Reader).
