Friday, June 12, 2009

Another Censor in Maharashtra

We Should Welcome It

Another censor board is in the offing in the Maharashtra. The state government is contemplating on creating a monitoring body for the content beamed on satellite channels. Rana Jagjitsinh Patil, minister of State for Cultural Affairs told the state legislative council that the Government is planning a comprehensive policy to check violence and indecency in television programmes.

"A meeting would be called to dwell on issues like setting up a censor board at the state level to monitor television programmes," he said.

Speaking on a non-official bill was mooted by Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe demanding stringent laws to curb violence and indecent shows on television, he said that the Crime Branch of Mumbai police took a serious cognizance of some TV programmes and action was taken in these cases.

The programmes included 'Split Wild' on MTV, an advertisement of Virgin Mobile and the 'Big Boss' show on Colors channel, he said. The Cable Act provides for curbing indecent programmes and the Collector can take action, he added.

"The state government should have a censor board on the lines of the central Censor Board for movies and dramas to monitor TV shows before telecast," Gorhe said.

This is the second such move by Maharashtra government. Yesterday, it proposed to prosecute television serial producers who have hired child actors to work in their soaps.

Labour Minister Nawab Malik informed that cases will be filed against the producers in the Judicial Magistrate First class court in a day or two. The producers include makers of popular serials "Jai Shri Krishna", "Uttaran", "Balika Vadhu", "Chhote Miyan" onColors channel and "Chak de Bachche" (9X), "Chhota Packet Bada Dhamaka" and "Maayka" (Zee).

If the government is serious, we should welcome. On account of its glamour and influence, the Tv and film industry seems to get away with anything it does. Maha government has failed on many fronts in implementing its announcements. If this announcement too goes that way, it will be bad enough.

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