Chennai: Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has urged the media to play the role of educator in handling sensitive issues and also impose self-regulation whenever there is crisis.
“It is imperative to strike a fine balance between freedom of speech and expression and the reasonable restrictions so as to maintain public order and integrity and sovereignty of India,” he said while inaugurating the Regional Editors Conference held under the aegis of Press Information Bureau (PIB) here on Thursday.
Whenever there was any crisis, media ought to behave in a “sober manner” through self-regulation. “At times I feel sad due to competition and in race for TRPs, sensationalism has become the order of the day,” Venkaiah said.
Earlier, referring to the presence of state information and publicity minister ‘Kadambur’ Raju at the event, Venkaiah thanked Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa for sending him.
“We are a federal country, the Centre, state governments and local bodies have to work together,” he said and added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi believed in cooperative federalism and he wanted the entire country to work as team India.
Second list of cities that qualify for smart city project to be released soon
Union minister for urban development M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said that the second list of cities that qualify for the Centre’s smart city project would be released by this month.
Addressing the Engineers Conclave organised by the Indian National Academy of Engineering in association with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras on Thursday, the minister said that the second list would add 40 more cities to the project that aims at smart administration for 100 cities across India. He also emphasized that Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa had requested the Centre to include Srirangam in the list of heritage cities along with Kancheepuram and Velankanni.
Pointing out that encroachments have become a menace to the cities, he attributed that there is a need for a political will to take action against illegal structures and encroachments that had occupied water bodies and drains.
He also took a dig at the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission and said that the BJP led government within its first two years on office had achieved more than what JNNURM had achieved in the past 10 years.
