TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in his avatar as Guest Editor of HeraldGroup’s Marathi publication ‘Dainik Herald’ Tuesday pushed for media portraying positive development viz a viz the general trend to portray only the negative.
He also told ‘his’ reporters that it was their job to disseminate news, and try and present it as accurately as possible.
Journalists should read; keep up with current affairs, said the guest editor at the meeting with ‘his’ journalists.
“An editor as well as a reporter should have knowledge about a wide variety of subjects,” the guest editor told reporters saying that it was important that media should maintain credibility. If not, then automatically the credit (of the publication) will go down, he said.
Guest Editor Parrikar stressed that it was important that reporters understand the subject before filing news.
Speaking on the recent dump policy he said that in his personal opinion this was not a dump policy but a “land use policy” as it was to look into the use of land for any purpose.
GUEST EDITOR’S TAKE ON ~ SC order on SIC: “I have not seen the order. But if they have withdrawn it, then I welcome it. (In such posts) they are supposed to be giving quick decisions… more for public welfare and public decisions.”
He analysed today’s ‘Dainik Herald’ headlines and also had meetings with reporters, both from the Marathi and English Herald as well as with the Editorial department.
Speaking on the way the financial situation in the State is spoken about many times, he said that often it is said that there is a financial crisis in the State; which was not true. He said that of course there was a drop in revenue; but it was a loss of revenue but not a financial crisis.
“Of course loss of Rs 1,500 crore is a setback,” he said but added that if it was a crisis then there would have been a problem in paying salaries. “We have been paying salaries in time and clearing bills. Many times there are delays, but we are trying to streamline the system,” he said, putting on his Chief Minister’s hat, while explaining the reality and how it is portrayed many a times.
“In a way public expenditure is higher in many ways,” he said, adding that in many things they had already spent even upto 80% of the amounts.
Parrikar said that many times there were certain vested interests that were trying to create hurdles in the way of the functioning of the government, recalling that the water shortage at the GMC was partly caused by a dead pigeon and a T-shirt in the water pipes that blocked water supply. He said the problem was being sorted out and he had already held discussions with the authorities.
Speaking on the shocking murder of a sister by her own brother Monday, Parrikar lamented that this incident showed that there is decadence of cultural and ethical values among people.
“Greed has increased,” he said, arguing that this did not mean that the general law and order situation in the State was bad.
