Hyderabad, July 23: The Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, on Thursday asserted that there would be no bar on the day-to-day live telecast during the Budget session except that only proceedings within the House will be permitted to be televised.
Addressing the media on the eve of the Budget session, which commences from Friday, the Speaker tried to justify certain restrictions being imposed, for the first time in the annals of the State legislature, including on the media, especially on TV channels.
Mr Reddy tried to defend his action in imposing the restriction by taking umbrage of security reasons for proper conduct of the proceedings in the House and also to uphold the dignity and image of the Assembly.
The Speaker explained that the people who elected their representatives have a right to know how responsibly they are functioning and hence the live telecast of the proceedings within the House would continue. Arrangements were being made to facilitate some 80 TV channels to telecast the proceedings at a time instead of the present 17 channels.
Stating that keeping in view the various security concerns and certain measures have to be initiated during the session, the Speaker felt that these might hurt some, but there was no other alternative. Instead of the present 1,033 passes issued to the media, it has now been drastically slashed down in tune with the practice existing for news coverage of Parliament.
The passes are categorized into three types – Lobby passes for 180, Gallery passes for 159 and 152 passes for TV channels at the Media Point. Even the present media point is being shifted to a suitable place due to pressures and complaints from the MLAs regarding the traffic problems being encountered.
The Speaker said no delegations would be permitted when the House is in session and representations to ministers and others would not be entertained. Any representation to the Speaker would be allowed only after the House adjourns.
While visitors would be allowed as usual in the galleries, they would be barred from entering the lobbies as was the practice in the past. Even the visitors would be provided with instant photo ID passes with the help web cameras to ensure the required information about the visitors like their name, address and who has recommended for the issuance of the passes.
The Speaker also disclosed that photographers and video-graphers would not be permitted in the lobbies when the House is in session and even press conferences in the lobbies are banned. All these measures were being taken in tune with the Parliament practice, the Speaker observed. (NSS)