Citing code of conduct, UP government asks districts admins to give PM’s telecast a miss

BAREILLY: Under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) the Centre organised a programme, ‘Swachh Shakti - 2017’, on Wednesday for which administrations of all districts were directed to make arrangements for 50 pradhans, especially women, at each district headquarter so they could watch the live telecast of the Prime Minister’s speech. However, citing the model code of conduct imposed in the state, the administration didn’t hold the PM’s live telecast in the state. According to administrative sources, earlier they were instructed to make arrangements for the telecast, but on Tuesday they were instructed to cancel the arrangements.

Jogendra Prasad

, deputy secretary in the Panchayati Raj department of the state government, sent a letter to all district magistrates and the director of SBM, where he stated, “On March 2, a letter was issued instructing for arrangements at each district headquarters for at least 50 village heads, including women, for live telecast of the Swachh Shakti programme to be addressed by the PM. But now, as the model code of conduct is imposed in the state, the instructions given on March 2 will be null and void. There is no need to make any arrangement for the live telecast of the PM’s speech now.” The copy of the letter is with TOI.

PM Narendra Modi, addressed Swachh Shakti – 2017, a convention of women village heads in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. He said that this event was an occasion to honour pradhans who had contributed immensely to the movement towards a clean India. He said that in 2019, the nation would mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, who, he recalled, had stated that cleanliness was even more important than political freedom. He urged the gathering to maintain the momentum which has been generated towards cleanliness.

District Panchayati Raj officer

Vinay Kumar Singh

told TOI, “Following the previous instructions, we had invited the village heads to attend the live telecast. On Tuesday evening, we got a message on the phone that the programme has been cancelled due to some reasons, so we immediately told the invited village heads that there was no need to come to district headquarters on Wednesday. Now, it came to our knowledge that as the mode code of conduct is imposed here, the live telecast was cancelled.”