Use New Political Map Of India, Modi Govt Issues Advisory To Private Media Channels

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Thursday issued an advisory to all the media channels, to only use ‘the latest political map approved by Survey of India’ in their news reports. “With the creation of two Union territories of J&K and Ladakh on October 31, 2019, the new political map has been released. It has been prepared by the Survey of India, department of science and technology. All TV channels are requested to use only this map,” the I&B ministry order said.

The new map was released by the Centre showing the UT of Ladakh which consists of two districts of Kargil and Leh, while the rest of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir is in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier this week, the information and broadcasting ministry had issued an order asking officials of to take “strict and prompt action” against operators showing “unauthorised content”. “No cable operator or MSO can carry any content of a channel that is not permitted by the ministry,” the order, citing sub rule 6 of cable TV rules, said.

“It has come to the notice of this ministry that some private channels which are not permitted by this ministry are being transmitted by some cable operators on their networks. This is a clear violation of the Cable TV rules, under programme code, and needs to be acted upon immediately,” the order said.

In 1947, the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir had the following 14 districts - Kathua, Jammu, Udhampur, Reasi, Anantnag, Baramulla, Poonch, Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Leh and Ladakh, Gilgit, Gilgit Wazarat, Chilhas and Tribal Territory.

By 2019, the government of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir had reorganised the areas of these 14 districts into 28 districts.  

The names of the new districts were - Kupwara, Bandipur, Ganderbal, Srinagar, Budgam, Pulwama, Shupian, Kulgam, Rajouri, Ramban, Doda, Kishtivar, Samba and Kargil.

Out of these, Kargil district was carved out from the area of Leh and Ladakh district.

The Leh district of the new UT of Ladakh has been defined in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Removal of Difficulties) Second Order, 2019, issued by the President of India, to include the areas of the districts of Gilgit, Gilgit Wazarat, Chilhas and Tribal Territory of 1947, in addition to the remaining areas of Leh and Ladakh districts of 1947, after carving out the Kargil District.