After Capt. Amarinder Sing’s documented disclosures clearly indicating that the PTC Channel is owned by the Badal family, the lid over its one sided favouritism to the Akali’s stands blown off.
Needless to mention, the PTC channel has for the last five years unleashed malicious well orchestrated campaign against Capt. Amarinder Singh and the congress party. The channel has thrown all norms of fair journalism to the winds to favour the SAD-BJP Govt. to the hilt. No news howsoever important it may be, the congress party has always been blacked out by the PTC channel. Even its debates and discussions are all manipulated to favour the Badals.
Since Badals own PTC channel the SAD-BJP Govt. on unwritten directions of the Badal duo, have bent head over heels to give massive govt. sponsored advertisements to the PTC channel, at the cost of public exchequer.
Even the exclusive rights of relay of ‘Gurbani from ‘Darbar Sahib’ by the SGPC smack of complete favouritism to the Badals. The PTC channel has failed to fulfill its commitment of paying Rs. 2 crores as annual fees to the SGPC besides giving Rs. 50 lacs annually to its educational institutions. The PTC channel has also violated the 10% royalty clause from revenue being generated before and after the relay of ‘Gurbani’ daily.
Therefore, following are the demands of the congress party in matters related to the biased functioning of the PTC channel.
1. The Election Commission of india must intervene to prevent telecast of politically motivated programmes to favour the Akali Dal, since the channel is directly owned by the Badals. This must be done to ensure free and fair elections to the Vidhan Sabha.
2. The Election Commission must inquire into the PTC channel – fastway cable network nexus as the Badals have monopolized and hijacked the cable network in Punjab.
3. The SGPC must black list PTC channel for defaulting crores of rupees as per its agreement with the channel. All other channels wanting to telecast ‘Gurbani’ must be allowed to do so and the telecast of ‘Gurbani’ should not remain the exclusive rights of the PTC Channel.
4. Lastly the congress urges the people at large and congress cadres in particular, to boycott the biased and politically motivated news and debates of the PTC to allow formation of fair views for the ensuing elections.