The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has issued a notice to news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) seeking payment of dues worth Rs 84.48 crore for its headquarter at Parliament Street in New Delhi.

The notice issued on July 7 by the Land and Development Office came into the agency’s notice on July 13, stating that the news agency has to clear the dues within 30 days from the date of issue of the letter, failing to which they will be liable to pay a 10% interest penalty on total dues. The concession of limiting the penalty will also be withdrawn.

The notice also stipulates that the news agency must give an undertaking on non-judicial stamp paper, stating that it will pay the difference of ‘misuse/damage charges’, if the land rates are revised with effect from 01.04.2016 by the government, and will also remove the ‘breaches’ by 14.07.2020 or get them regularised by paying charges.

Speaking on the matter, a PTI spokesperson told The Wire that the agency is seeking clarification from the authorities on alleged breaches.

The notice comes two weeks after national broadcaster Prasar Bharati allegedly threatened to withdraw the agency’s subscription for its ‘anti-national’ coverage of the border tensions between India and China.

Prasar Bharati alleged that the recent interview of PTI with the Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong was ‘detrimental to national interest and undermined India’s territorial integrity’.

In the interview, Sun had said that the Indian side crossed the Line of Actual Control for provocation and attacked the Chinese border troops, and that ‘the onus is not on China’. The Indian forces seriously violated agreements on border issues between the two countries, he added.

In the letter issued to the PTI Chairman Vijay Kumar Chopra, Prasar Bharati expressed its ‘deep displeasure’ and stated that the reporting makes it difficult to continue the relationship, officials told The Hindu.

However, in response, PTI said that it was doing only doing its job, to record the point of view of the ‘other side’.

As of now, no further development has come on the national broadcaster’s decision to withdraw its Rs 7 crore annual subscription of the news agency services, holding almost 25% of the agency’s annual fee.

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