Mamata restricts media entry to CII national council meeting

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee never ceases to surprise. After issuing official instruction to restrict media movement in her new state secretariat, Nabanna, Banerjee has decided to restrict entry of media persons at the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII's) National Council Meeting tomorrow.

The national council meeting is being held in the city for the first time in the new regime. The last such meeting took place in 2010 when Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was the Chief Minister of Bengal.  

The meeting is held every quarter in different regions of the country but in the last two years Kolkata couldn't play host as the Chief Minister couldn't make time, said a National Council member. An official invitation from CII categorically says that only photographers/camera crew will be allowed at the start of the meeting for a five minute photo opportunity session.

CII members are still trying to arrange for media's interaction with CII members after the meeting.According to a member of CII, state government has advised the chamber body to bar the media from the event and as a consequence the media will not be allowed. The chamber body has made it clear that photographs as well as TV footage need to be taken from a raised platform which is about 75 feet from the main dais . CII has attributed this to part of security measures being taken for the event.

“We had discussed the issue with the state government and they (government) have advised us that it would be better for the government if the media was kept out of the scene,” the CII member said over the phone.  In fact, the choice of location —Townhall–was also suggested by Banerjee. Usually, the venue of the meeting is any of the five star hotels.  Another member of the chamber body pointed out that there is no hard and fast rule that media personnel would be restricted from interacting with members of CII or the CM after the meeting but such decisions are taken on a case-to-case basis if there are specific requests by the government's side.

A National Council member also said that Bengal had its chance to hold CII Partnership Summit in the state two years back, but in such a programme the state plays a part.