Steps on to telecast entire proceedings live, says Speaker

CHENNAI: Speaker M Appavu on Wednesday told the Assembly that zero hours will be telecast live from Wednesday and efforts are being taken to telecast the entire proceedings of the House. It would be materialised in a phased manner.

“Efforts have been taken to telecast the entire proceedings of the House. It started with airing of question hours. From today, we have commenced telecast of zero hours,” said the Speaker. The House would continue with the existing practice until it materalise its goal of airing the entire proceedings live, he noted.

Charging that the issues flagged by the AIADMK legislators in the Assembly are blacked out “intentionally” with “a hidden agenda,” Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami said, “Being the prime opposition party, we are here to raise the people’s issue. But, questions raised by us are not telecast and only the replies from Chief Minister and other Ministers are being live telecast. We are not here to hear the Ministers’ speak.” He wondered whether the Speaker was functioning in an unbiased manner.

Retorting the LoP, the Speaker categorically said that he has been functioning impartially. “After visiting and studying the practice in other states, we started telecast of question hour and now the zero hours. In a phased manner, the entire proceedings of the House will be live telecast,” he further said.

Earlier in the day, EPS along with legislators of his party staged a walkout in protest of the speeches of the Leader of Opposition not being aired live on the television, while replies of the Chief Minister and his cabinet were allowed to air live. They protested the alleged biased telecast of Assembly proceedings.