The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday lifted the 'unofficial' ban on English news channel- Times Now - in the state.
The UP government has given no official reason for blacking out the channel for 36 hours.
Times Now and Hindi news channel India News were unplugged by cable operators, some of who confessed that they were acting on an informal government order.
There was no official word on what led to the blacking out of the channels since Saturday. However, president of the Cable Service Consumer Protection Committee Ambika Prasad Ojha said: "The telecast of Times Now and India News has been stopped across UP because the CM got offended by their negative coverage of the Saifai Mahotsav."
A cable operator, requesting anonymity, confirmed to TOI that the two channels were blocked following phone calls from "higher-ups". Similar phone calls went to operators in other UP cities as well, he said. The channels, however, are available on direct-to-home or DTH platforms, over which the state government doesn't have any special influence.
Earlier, I&B minister Manish Tewari said, "The ban is reprehensible and uncalled for. We will take action if the channel complains to us. The complaint will be considered on merit, and if any illegality is found, we will take strict action against the erring MSOs (multi-system operators)."
The UP government has been under severe attack from the media for holding a grand - and expensive - carnival at Saifai, the home town of the Mulayam Singh Yadav clan, at a time when thousands of riot-affected poor people have been left to fend for themselves in the bitter cold in Muzaffarnagar. This juxtaposition, said Ojha, had made the Akhilesh Yadav government furious.
Apart from highlighting the UP regime's insensitivity, Times Now has also been running an investigative story on UP legislators, most of them of the Samajwadi Party, on a multi-nation junket on tax-payer expense.