Left asks govt to expeditiously resolve UNI issue

New Delhi, Nov 29: Left parties today asked the government to ''expeditiously'' resolve the issue regarding the sale of a majority stake in the United News of India to a media group.

CPI(M) leader in Rajya Sabha Sitaram Yechuri said the Left parties ''had been waiting'' for the government's response after the matter was brought to the notice of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a month ago.

''But it looks like that the government has inordinately delayed action and Left parties cannot wait endlessly,'' Mr Yechuri told mediapersons.

Three CPI MPs including their Deputy leader in the Lok Sabha CK Chandrappan addressed the agitating UNI employees this afternoon and opposed the sale.

''UNI will not remain the same...a co-operative entity of newspapers, once the business house takes over its control," Mr Chandrappan said.

CPI National secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, a Lok Sabha MP, said their ''struggle is part of the ongoing countrywide protests in various forms and shapes against the forces of globalisation which were out to monopolise natural and human resources, free flow of information and cultural diversity and pluralism.'' ''This ominous trend has to be checked particularly in media to ensure the free and fair flow of information and to thwart the attempts to turn a news item into a commodity,'' said Mr M Appadurai, MP.

In this context, he said, the ''retaining of neutral character'' of the news agency was of paramount importance and '' all the democratic forces of the country should extend support to the struggle for keeping UNI independent.''

UNI