[So, there're are two aspects here. One, the fraud that the crop insurance scheme is, a stratagem made available to the insurance companies to loot the farmers, even otherwise distressed. The second aspect is the issue of "managing" press freedom. 《As it stands now, farmers have very little to gain from having their crop insured, while private insurance companies are raking in the profits, agriculture expert Devinder Sharma wrote in The Wire last month. The TOI report was not only embarrassing for the Modi government at Centre, but also for Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who has faced a lot of flak in recent months from farmers in her state. Thomas told The Wire that she was asked to remove the word ‘fraud’, which wasn’t originally part of the copy she filed and was added by the desk while editing the draft, and get a quote from the authorities. However, the story was spiked even after she complied with these requests.》]
https://thewire.in/181157/times-of-india-vasundhara-raje-bjp-narendra-modi-press-censorship/ Times of India Takes Down a Story the BJP Finds Embarrassing, Again By Karnika Kohli on 26/09/2017 The TOI report was not only embarrassing for the Modi government at Centre, but also for Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje. times of india, crop insurance, paid newsNew Delhi: A story carried by the Times of India‘s Jaipur edition criticising the Narendra Modi government’s Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana on September 14, 2017 was taken down from the newspaper’s website within hours of publishing. The story by Rosamma Thomas reported how the scheme, which was hailed as a “safety shield” for farmers, has turned out to be just another way of the government taking Rajasthan’s hapless farmers for a ride. Launched in 2016, Modi government’s scheme has so far largely benefitted the insurance companies, which, thanks to high premiums and unpaid claims, logged profits of nearly Rs 10,000 crore till April, according to the office of the Comptroller and Auditor general (CAG) and the non-government Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). “The deduction was made without warning. The bank had no clue about what I had sown. Moreover, Rs 1,718 has been deducted as “inspection charges” though no one came for inspection. To top it [all], the premium has been deducted when the crops were safe and beyond the risk period. My crop was uninsured for 80% of the crop cycle, when the risk was at the highest. The premium has now been deducted for the full period,” a farmer who cultivates cotton and guar in equal halves in his 15-bigha farm told TOI. In July 31 this year, Rs 7,827 was deducted from his SBI account as premium for crop insurance. times of india, paid media, arun jaitley As it stands now, farmers have very little to gain from having their crop insured, while private insurance companies are raking in the profits, agriculture expert Devinder Sharma wrote in The Wire last month. The TOI report was not only embarrassing for the Modi government at Centre, but also for Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who has faced a lot of flak in recent months from farmers in her state. Thomas told The Wire that she was asked to remove the word ‘fraud’, which wasn’t originally part of the copy she filed and was added by the desk while editing the draft, and get a quote from the authorities. However, the story was spiked even after she complied with these requests. Also Read: Stories on Amit Shah’s Assets, Smriti Irani’s ‘Degree’ Vanish >From TOI, DNA “We were not happy with the introduction in the story,” claimed Kunal Majumder, TOI‘s resident editor for Jaipur, even though the story was published in his edition and would have been added to the Jaipur bureau’s list of stories that form part of the ‘Times News Network’ (TNN) with his approval. When asked if TOI will carry a clarification or a correction, Majumder said, “This isn’t a normal procedure. We have sent a revised copy to Delhi. Waiting for them to approve it.” Asked to clarify what he meant by “sent revised copy to Delhi”, he said that they were waiting for Ranjan Roy, who heads TNN, to approve the new draft. ranjan roy_rajesh kalra_diwakar asthana TOI executive editor Diwakar Asthana (left); Times News Network head Ranjan Roy (top right); and Times Internet Limited’s Rajesh Kalra (bottom right) When contacted, Roy claimed that he was unaware of any such incident and that “the TOI website had a life of its own”, implying that the decision to take down the story was taken by the online editors. TOI.in, whose editor Prasad Sanyal quit a few months ago, is currently headed by Times Internet Limited’s Rajesh Kalra. Under his direction, staffers say, the website – India’s largest news portal – has become especially accommodating towards advisories and releases from the Prime Minister’s Office and the government’s Press and Information Bureau. Asked why the crop insurance story had been taken down, Kalra too declined to comment. Ironically, the story was also uploaded under the ‘Good Governance’ section by TOI’s sister publication Navbharat Times as it still available on its website. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
