Hyderabad (Telangana): A petition has been filed in the Telangana High Court by VIL Media, a private company, seeking a direction to permit the media to report and telecast the ongoing demolition of the secretariat at Saidabad here, as the media persons are restrained from covering the secretariat building.
"We have filed a petition for the unreasonable restrictions imposed by the Telangana government on the press. The demolition activity started from July 15 onwards. The government is not at all allowing the press irrespective of channels print or electronic media," said Sampath, counsel for the petitioner.
"Demolition of the secretariat is a public affair and everything happens in the public domain. People have the right to know everything. Right to information and the right to be informed are important in a democracy. The state government has curtailed these two basic rights with an executive order. These rights are guaranteed under Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution of India," he said.
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Sampath said that the health of democracy can be measured in terms of what extent the press is enjoying freedom. "This kind of situation in Telangana happened for the first time and that is why we have approached the High Court," he added.
The K Chandrashekhar Rao-led Government began razing to the ground the old secretariat on July 7, days after the High Court dismissed a bunch of PILs challenging the states decision to construct a new secretariat complex by demolishing the existing one.
The state government earlier indicated that the new secretariat which would come up in about seven lakh sq ft would cost around Rs 400 crore and it had decided to equip the new one with state-of-the-art connectivity and other features.
However, the High Court later on July 10, ordered a stay on the demolition till July 13, which was subsequently extended till July 17.
With inputs from ANI
