Bhubaneswar, June 13: The new BJP government brought joy to the journalists in Odisha by allowing entry into the state Secretariat in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday after over four years the Naveen Patnaik government stopped the entry of media persons.
The BJP government led by Chief Minister Mohan Majhi threw open gates of the Secretariat, otherwise called Lok Seva Bhavan, to media persons on the first day in office.
Entry of journalists into Lok Seva Bhavan premises was banned by the BJD government in March 2020 following the Covid-19 pandemic, but it did not allow the scribes to enter after the pandemic.
Journalists from TV news channels and newspapers could not enter the secretariat as the Patnaik government refused to lift the ban on their entry despite demand by opposition leaders and journalists’ associations. Journalists could only enter the Secretariat when they were invited personally by a minister or bureaucrat.
The BJP had made it a poll issue during campaigning and committed that the BJP if voted to power will lift the undemocratic practice of not allowing the journalists into the Secretariat for performing professional duty.
In a symbolic gesture, newly sworn-in Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi held his media briefing inside the Secretariat after the first Cabinet meeting of his government last night.
