Odisha govt imposes curbs on publishing news on ‘daru’, Nabakalebara

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Mar 27:

The Odisha government has restrained the media from publishing any news relating to Nabakalebara festival without its prior approval.

A decision to this effect was taken at a high level meeting presided over by Law minister Arun Sahu in the presence of I&PR minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Food Supply and Consumer Welfare minister Sanjay Dasburma at the State Secretariat here on Thursday.

The meeting, while praising the role of the media in the dissemination of news on Nabakalebara, decided to restrain it from publishing any news relating to the identification of daru (log) for the making of the idols of the deities without the prior permission of Shri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).

Since identification of daru is a sensitive matter, it was decided that the media would publish the news on this only after official notification.

A joint team of officials of the Information and Public Relations (I&PR) department and SJTA would make all arrangements to provide information on identification and selection of daru and other information relating to Nabakalebara. The media will be allowed to publish news on this only after the approval of the SJTA.

Among others, , SJTA chief administrator Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, I&PR secretary Madhusudan Padhi, I&PR director Ranjit Mohanty and officials of the concerned departments were present at the meeting.