Opinion January 22, 1976: Forty Years Ago

Today in history

January 22, 2016 12:34 AM IST First published on: Jan 22, 2016 at 12:34 AM IST

Tiwari is UP CM

A two-tier, 30-member ministry headed by Narain Dutt Tiwari was sworn in after the revocation of the 52-day-old president’s rule imposed after H.N. Bahuguna resigned as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Governor M. Chenna Reddy administered the oath of office to Tewari, who heads the ninth Congress ministry in UP since Independence, and his other cabinet colleagues. The ministry had 14 cabinet ministers, including the chief minister, and 16 ministers of state. Of the 14 cabinet ministers, 13 were in the outgoing ministry and 11 of them had resigned from the Bahuguna ministry en bloc, which had led to Bahuguna’s resignation.

MISA bill

Union Home Minister K. Brahmananda Reddy told the Lok Sabha that the proposed amendments to MISA “seek to remedy some legal difficulties encountered in the administration of the act”. He told the house that they were essentially a sequel to the amendments passed in July 1975.

Chasnala operation

Decomposed bodies were recovered from the devastated Chasnala mines before the search operations were halted.

Single news agency

The managements of the four news agencies proposed a merger into a single agency, Union I&B Minister V.C. Shukla told the Lok Sabha. He expressed the government’s satisfaction that the managements as well as the unions of PTI, UNI, Hindustan Samachar and Samachar Bharati passed resolutions “supporting the idea of a single and strong news agency”. Shukla said the proposed agency should be independent in the true sense of the word, which meant it should be free from the control of vested interests, including monopoly houses. The country needed a single and strong national news agency able to cover all areas, especially rural areas and all relevant fields, in accordance with well-accepted national goals.