20 websites and blogs to be shut immediately,DOT

New Delhi, Jul 18 (UNI) In a crackdown on 'objectionable' blogs and websites, the government today asked the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to stop them with immediate effect even as bloggers across the country complained of access problems.

According to the Department, some of these sites were being used by banned organisations to transmit messages to their colleagues since blog entries cannot be tracked as easily as email.

Some of the blog sites that were asked to be blocked include hindunity.og and exposingtheleft.blogspot.com.

Others blogs and wesbites denied access are hosted on the following servers are xxx.blogspot.com/ , xxx.typepad.com/ , xxx.blogs.com/ , www.geocities.com/xxx Tata Indicom, Spectranet, Reliance Powersurfer, Airtel, MTNL, Sify, Exatt, Primus, In2cable, Iqara, Pacenet and Hathway are ISPs blocking bloggers.

The DOT order was received by the legal departments in some ISPs which have gone out on Friday last week.

There are some 150 ISPs in India and access to them have been currently been blocked.

UNI RT RA DB1852