Pro-government dailies will be promoted | Bengal minister

Kolkata: A West Bengal minister on Sunday defended the government's order to its libraries to stock only specific newspapers for promoting "free thinking" and said only pro-government dailies will be given preference.

"We are running the government and whoever writes about us will get preference. Only pro-government newspapers will be promoted. Where is the harm in it," Minister of State for Rural Development Sisir Adhikari asked while speaking to reporters.

The Congress, a junior partner in the Trinamool Congress-led alliance, wrote a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee protesting against the order and demanded its withdrawal.

The order had earlier specified only eight vernacular dailies but the government later added five more, including an English daily, to the list.

Banerjee earlier said that she may ask people to stop buying certain newspapers "because a conspiracy is going on against us".

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