Minister for Social Welfare M.K. Muneer and historian M.G.S. Narayanan joined a group of newspaper readers who gathered at a bus station here on Tuesday morning to protest against the ongoing strike by newspaper agents in several parts of Kerala.The Minister, a leader of the Indian Union Muslim League, and other protesters said they wanted to express their resentment over the strike since it had denied ordinary people their right to read the newspapers of their choice.The Minister and Dr. Narayanan distributed copies of certain newspapers at the spot .While it was the legitimate right of every group to launch agitations over grievances, methods of protest that deprive people of their right to information were unfair and indefensible in a democracy, Dr. Muneer said. The strike was unfair since it deprived common people of their daily morning fare of news and information they offered, he said.Dr. Narayanan, a former chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research, said that without the morning newspaper ordinary Malayalees like him just felt lost.Several other social workers including a former vice-chairman of the Kerala Sahithya Akademi, U.K. Kumaran, and novelist K.P. Sudheera took part in the demonstration. Mr. Kumaran said the striking newspaper agents had a "hidden political agenda."
Call for steps to end strike
The Indian Chamber of Commerce & industry has urged the State government to take measures to end the strike by a section of newspaper agents which has been causing hardship to the people. In a statement, the organisation's president, Prakash James, said the common man's fundamental right to information was being restricted due to the strike.
agent demands- 50 percentage commission, welfare fund, for supplements need extra charge.
reality one agent is not an agent of a single news paper.for which commodity in the world you will get half of the price as commission?, every job has its difficulty.agents work from morning five to ten .most of them have other jobs.agency is only a part time affair.now they get 32.50 per copy a month.also they are collecting 15 rupees as service charging in most parts of kerala.
News paper agents works very hard for the companies inspite of the
climate.But they are not even considered as the labourers of the news
paper companies.This is not at all justifiable.What is the reason behind
making agents' work for such a very low commission?Companies consider it
as the duty of the agents' to sort out the paper,insert suppliments into
the paper etc.But they do not pay for this additional works.The
situation should be changed.
Its not the demand of the newspaper agents, but the methods they use which is disturbing...A strike from their part is not the matter of concern but the fact that they are not allowing even interested agents to distribute paper. Also newspaper companies not going for their own distribution mechanism is a different story altogether. Every company has their own specialization. Now if they need to do distribution they have to have a complete section to look after the affairs for that which is not possible all of a sudden.
And the most striking fact is not including political party papers in the strike.This is unbelievably biased. This is a challenge to the free media. Are they telling that only party papers should exist. Newspapers run by political parties in Kerala are notorious for their biased content and falsifying news. Encouraging them is dangerous to the society in general.
But who will consider the problems of the news paper agents in kerala. News paper companies(Mainly malayalam papers) are making profit out of these people by giving them nothing. Now in kerala it is hard to get a worker even if you pay them Rs.500 or more per day(8 hours work). A news paper agent gets around Re.1 per copy of paper under his agency. From that he has to pay about 30% to the person for distribution. So please think how much he earns per day . Also leading malayalam news paper companies like manorama and mathrubhumi sends lot of extra copies to keep their circulation number. Please visit any of these news paper agents house, you can see lot of news papers and magazines in his bedroom, store room and kitchen which is counted in the 10 or 14 lakhs of circulation which these newspapers claim to have. News paper companies must hear the problems of their agents. Ministers , residence association and art of living people for distribution? How many days?
This is one clear case of bad reporting by the Hindu paper. The news article does not say anything about why the news agents are on strike, or how long or the cost/losses involved or which areas are affected. Also it does not say who is supporting it and what the Government is doing about it to stop it. All it says is a Minister distributed copies of paper and rights of the individual to read the paper.
I think the Hindu paper is doing a censorship and presenting a news without a head and tail. This news is already on TV . The paper has responsibility to the readers in giving all the information. This is poor journalism. The paper must improve its quality of news items . People are better off than reading newspapers.
a minister will not be partial. Now he is helping monopoly newspapers
who can distribute by their own staff. Please think why they not doing?
They know that it will not be profitable. Agents are working early
morning in all seasons for more than 4 years with the stable commission.
Agents are trying to get an increase in commission for last two years.
Agents were assured an increase in their commission in December. But
monopolists denied. Agents waited Jan, Feb, and by giving adequate
notices in March they started Strike. Is this justifiable?
Strike should be the last in the armory to settle disputes. The honorable minister and a top
Historian of India , has taken the initiative to help the public by distributing news papers to
The public and this action should be taken in the proper spirit. The public should get the
Information without any delay and The news paper agents should now leave the demands
to the government for a peaceful settlement of the issue. Such action sometimes will
Boomerang against those who initiate collective action, and the news paper agents should
Take into consideration this aspect as well. One hopes that the stalemate will end soon.
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