In response to the report 'Violence rocks Andhra, Rayalaseema,' published in The Hindu on December 13, the Director General of Police, Andhra Pradesh, writes:
The lead story on the front page of The Hindu dated December 13, 2009, titled 'Violence rocks Andhra, Rayalaseema' is highly misleading in as much as it is suggestive of large scale incidence of violence in the entire region of Andhra and Rayalaseema. While the text of the lead story only mentions "sporadic violence" as witnessed in the above mentioned regions, like the incident of setting ablaze BSNL's optic fibre cables worth Rs.30 lakh at its warehouse abutting the S.K.University campus, there was no other incident of major violence in either Andhra or Rayalaseema regions as evident from the news item itself. In fact, the report also quotes the Inspector General of Police Mrs. A.R. Anuradha that agitators caused minor damage to 14 transport vehicles, five trains were stopped and rasta roko was organised at 35 places.
We agree that the headline, exaggerating the nature and scale of the "sporadic violence" mentioned in the report, was unwarranted. We regret the publication of this misleading headline -- Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu
