Late in the Wednesday afternoon, the head office of popular news daily ‘Deccan Chronicle’ in Vishakapatnam was attacked by a bunch of TDP supporters as a sign of protest over the fake news published on Privatization of Vizag Steel Plant. The mob ransacked the office furniture and burnt the name board at the entrance before raising slogans against the unsubstantiated news piece.
Going into the details, Deccan Chronicle recently published an article about Steel Plant with the title ‘ Alliance government takes U-turn on VSP privatization’. The news daily reported that Chandrababu Naidu led state government has decided to rally behind the central government’s proposal to disinvest Rastriya Ispat Nigam Limited ( called as Vizag steel plant).
The controversial article further claimed that TDP changed its stance after the elections regarding privatization of steel plant. Earlier, it was suggesting merger of RINL with SAIL to continue it as a public sector entity. However, after the elections it was seeking revival package of 8000 Crores and 22000 acres land from the president. It reported that Minister for State Srinivas Varma confirmed that the disinvestment process in underway and there is no stopping it whatever the consequences.
Angered with this misleading report with assumptions even before any official announcement from either the state government or the central government, TDP supporters raided the office of DC near Kaliashgiri and confronted the staff for publishing unverified news to mislead the people.
The DC officials condemned the attack and asserted that they will stand by their news even though the ruling party denies such plans as they have got reliable information about the privatization plans of the central government.
Meanwhile, YSR Congress party president Jagan Mohan Reddy called it a cowardly attack and said this is another another attempt to stifle the media that chooses to be unbiased. The TDP high command is yet to respond on the issue.