'If wife does not serve tea on time, then it's breaking news'

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad  has taken a dig at the media for highlighting trivial issues in their race for news and ignoring developmental issues in the state.

Criticizing the media's flair for sensation, the chief minister said, "If the wife doesn't serve her husband morning tea in time, it becomes breaking news.''

He emphasised the need for the print and electronic media to highlight developmental issues and positive things happening in the country.

Azad also suggested the media should not sensationalise trivial issues and  keep on harping on them which leads to a situation where the common people believe nothing good was happening around.

"If one reads a newspaper or switches on to a news channel, all he gets is news like blasts, murders, family discord and arson as  if the entire country is on fire," Azad told a two-day conference of  editors from all over the country at the Sheri Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC).

He said, "Positive news takes a back seat."

At least 40 editors from all over the country, besides colleagues,  are participating in the conference, jointly organised by the Press Information Bureau and the State Information Department.

Union Minister for rural development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Union Minister of State for Railways R Velu and Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development M A A. Fatimi attended the conference.

The chief minister presented the development scene in the state as it obtains for the last two years since he assumed office and said that his government tried its best to develop infrastructure, have transparency, fight corruption and ensure that human rights violations do not occur.

He said during the last 10 months, not a single case of custodial disappearance has been reported in the state and, keeping his fingers crossed, he hoped that 2007 would be the first year since militancy erupted in the state when no case of custodial disappearance was reported.

He said cases of custodial killings have been brought down to five percent, adding this was the result of the zero-tolerance towards human rights violations announced by the Prime Minister.

He said his government had made it clear that human rights violations would not be permitted. He referred to the severe action taken against a senior police officer and his men involved in a fake encounter case, who, he said, has been languishing in the jail for the last one year.