Assembly wants ban on sting operations

Lucknow, Mar 11: The Uttar Pradesh assembly today (Mar 11, 2006) voiced concerns against the sting operations by various TV news channels demanding a ban on such activities as it was 'only aimed to tarnish the image of the politicians and to hurt the country's democracy.' Members of different political parties ,except the Congress, urged the speaker Mata Prasad Pandey to take a strict view and demanded that prior permission should be taken from the Chair before any such operations.

Mr Pandey later said he would take legal advice in this regard and call an all party meeting to discuss the issue.

He also said that the 11-member committee of the House, which was probing recent disclosure by a channel about three MLAs on February 15, would also look into other such activities against other members of the house which included parliamentary affairs minister Mohammad Azam Khan, minister of state for culture Rajendra Singh Rana and another minister Brahma Shanker Tiwari.

Earlier, BJP's Hukum Singh criticised the media for tarnishing the image of the members through 'fake' documents while BSP legislature party leader Swami Prasad Maurya said that the mediapersons should be punished under criminal offences for implicating politicians just to attract viewership.

However, Congress members maintained silience over the issue. The party had moved a petition before the speaker to disqualify the three members who were caught indulging in corrupt practices by a TV channel.

UNI