CPI has decided to suspend the publication of its Bengali daily ‘Kalantar’. (Source: Wikipedia)
Owing to severe financial crunch, the CPI has decided to suspend the publication of its Bengali daily ‘Kalantar’ — the party’s mouthpiece in the state.
Confirming this, CPI state secretary Swapan Banerjee told The Indian Express that the publication of its daily will be suspended from November 1. He, however, added that the party is planning a fortnightly magazine with the same name till they revive the daily, but nothing has been finalised as of yet.
“Since 2011, the state government has stopped providing us advertisements. The Centre, too, has been doing the same. Being a small party, running a daily requires a lot of money and effort. We have been publishing it for over 50 years. Now, we have exhausted all our resources and without advertisements we cannot continue. So, we have decided to suspend the publication for the time being. We might come up with a fortnightly magazine with the same name but it is in the pipeline,” Banerjee said.
Kalantar, which was initially a weekly newspaper, became a daily in the late 1960s. The header of the newspaper was designed by the legendary film-maker Satyajit Ray.
Banerjee said that they are trying to lease out its press to gain financial benefits which would be used to restart the newspaper. “We will try to relaunch the paper in one year. Till then we will use our press to earn some money,” the CPI leader added.
CPM leader Rabin Deb said that the attitude of the state government in not providing advertisements to smaller newspapers is the reason why so many dailies are shutting down.
“It is very unfortunate that this newspaper which has been in circulation for so many years has to suspend its publication. We are also finding it difficult to run our mouthpiece ‘Ganashakti’, but we have been able to survive as it is run by a trust. On one hand, the cost of newsprint has gone up and on the other the state government does not provide advertisements. If this attitude continues, then more such dailies will be forced to shut down its operations,” said Deb.