Journalists boycott press meet of minister due to delay

Journalists today boycotted the scheduled press conference of Assam Education Minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya here due to inordinate delay without any intimation.

Bhattacharya, who also holds Guwahati Development and Law & Justice portfolio, had called invited journalists for a press conference through an official invite.

"Honble Minister, Education will address a Press Meet on 19th June, 2018 at 10:30 AM in the Conference Hall of the Minister at D-Block, 4 th Floor, Janata Bhawan, Dispur, Guwahati, regarding introduction of Science Stream in different colleges of Assam," Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) said in the invite yesterday.

However, when the media persons, including print and electronic, reached the venue on time this morning to cover the press meet, there was no one to attend, but only a peon.

After some time, a DIPR official arrived, but she too had no clue when the minister would reach.

A few journalists tried to call Bhattacharya, but he did not pick up phone nor sent any message.

After waiting for more than an hour without any communication from him, the scribes decided to boycott the press meet.

Before leaving the secretariat complex, the journalists wrote a complaint letter to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and handed over it to his Media Adviser Hrishikesh Goswami.

Goswami said he has forwarded the letter to the chief minister.

The letter informed the chief minister of the entire incident and requested him to take action so that such incident does not recur.

Bhattacharya, a first time minister was inducted into the state Cabinet in the last week of April this year.