AGARTALA, Oct 2 - The registration of the Daily Desher Katha, a mouthpiece of the Tripura CPI(M) unit, has been suspended over an �ownership dispute�, triggering sharp reactions from senior leaders of the party.
The Registrar of Newspapers in India (RNI) on Monday night asked the newspaper management to suspend publication following a verdict passed by the District Magistrate of West Tripura, Dr Sandeep Mahatme. It cited �unauthorised change of ownership� as the reason for the suspension of the Bengali daily�s registration.
Shyamal Debnath, a resident of West Tripura, had filed a case against the newspaper earlier this year, challenging the declaration made by the daily.
Meanwhile, reacting sharply to the development, CPI (M) central committee member Gautam Das said the RNI move was �totally illegal, politically motivated and anti-democratic�.
Das, who had served as the editor of the newspaper for a long time, added, �The CPI (M) ran a weekly newspaper called Desher Katha in the 1960s and 1970s. The weekly was upgraded to a daily in 1979 by fulfilling all stipulated procedures.�
The veteran leader relinquished editorship of the newspaper in 2015. �In 2012, when I was still the editor, the ownership of the paper was transferred from the party to a duly constituted society under the Society Registration Act, 1860. It changed hands again this year as a newly-formed trust took over the newspaper and CPI(M) member Samir Paul was appointed as the publisher and editor,� he said.
