HYDERABAD: After several mediapersons including a TNIE journalist had a harrowing time with the police on Monday night, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday clarified that mediapersons were exempted from lockdown and that they could attend their duties without any restriction.
Rao told DGP M Mahender Reddy and other police officials, who are entrusted with enforcing lockdown, not to restrict the movement of mediapersons who were conveying crucial information to the public. He said that some incidents of a tussle between police personnel and journalists on Monday had come to his notice. The CM asserted that without the media, people would not know what steps the government was taking to protect everyone from the coronavirus pandemic.
The TNIE journalist, who was returning home from work, was stopped while he was taking pictures of a barricade set up by the police near the Hyderabad Public School. He took pictures of an ambulance which was having trouble getting past the barricade because there were a lot of vehicles around.
Four police officials including a senior surrounded the journalist and asked him to take his reporting elsewhere. Many medical practitioners and pharmacy shop assistants also faced problems while returning home from work.
On Tuesday, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao tweeted, "Have received several complaints about police not allowing personnel involved in essential services to move about; I have requested both Home Minister Mahmood Ali Saab and @TelanganaDGP to issue clear instructions in this regard (sic)."