No intention to control media, Maharashtra CM says on setting up of monitoring centre

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government does not intend to control the media through the monitoring centre that it plans to set up, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Saturday while asserting the mechanism was to "take note" of what is printed and broadcast for response and clarification purposes.

The media monitoring centre (MMC) to be set up under the state government's Directorate of Information and Publicity has come in for criticism and is being dubbed as a move to control the media.

A government resolution issued earlier this week said the requirement of such a centre was felt because of the growth of publications, channels and digital platforms and there was need for monitoring under one umbrella how the news related to government schemes, policies are given.

A professional consultant will be hired to collect government related news in PDF format and bifurcate into various categories like issues, individuals, departments, positive and negative, the GR stated.

"We have no intention to control the media but want to take note of what is printed and broadcast so as to respond or clarify expeditiously if there is any misleading or negative news," Fadnavis said during an informal interaction with women journalists to mark International Women's Day.

Asked about the proposed law to curb "love jihad", the CM said interfaith marriages are not bad but only those which take place after faking or hiding identity, involve forced conversions, dumping wife after childbirth etc need to be stopped.

"Prevailing laws don't deal with such incidents. Women often find themselves on the streets after being cheated in such marriages. We have set up a committee comprising officials from the government, police to work on how to deal with such cases and draft a legislation," Fadnavis said.

"Love jihad" is a term used by right-wing outfits to allege a conspiracy by Muslim men to convert Hindu women to Islam through fraudulent marriages.