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Annamlai University in Tamil Nadu is poised to become the first
organisation to implement the community radio broadcast programme,
likely to be inaugurated in February 2004.
What's more, the central government is also pulling out all the
stops to facilitate clearances - more in number compared to launching
a satellite TV channel - that would be needed to start such a service.
Annamalai University would be followed by the prestigious Indian
Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) that has also set its eyes
on flagging off a community radio broadcast service for its campus.
According to government sources, in all probability, IIT-K's community
radio pogramme would be inaugurated by telecom and infotech minister
Arun Shourie.
Shourie has a soft spot for IIT-K. In the past too, he had donated
the money earmarked for him (as a Member of Parliament to develop
his constituency) to a technology project of the institute.
The sources also said that the government (read the I&B ministry)
is seeing to it that the community radio scheme doesn't get embroiled
in controversy and a maze of bureaucratic clearances.
Recently, an expert committee set up to suggest an investor-friendly
policy guidelines for the radio broadcast sector, had brought to
the notice of the ministry that the community radio service had
failed to take off even after one year of its announcement because
of the huge number of clearances needed.
Earlier, the justification for delay in such clearances had been
that, in a diverse country like India, the government could not
allow clandestine radio services to be started by anti-India groups
in the name of community radio broadcast.
But proponents of this community radio service have argued that
the government should make the procedure less cumbersome and can
also easily monitor such services with the help of the local government
and security agencies.
The Planning Commission too has suggested that such community broadcasts
can be funded by the government also.
As admitted by the I&B minister Ravi Shankar Prasad recently
in the Parliament, over 20 organisations - including universities
academic institutes and non-governmental organisations - have sought
permission to start a community radio broadcast service.
Also Read:
39 institutions apply
for licences for community radio project
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