NEW DELHI: The Communication and Information Technology Ministry has received the report of a high-level committee set up to roll back the revised spectrum charges for community radio stations.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said the CIT Ministry was presently studying the report and a decision was ?under process.?

The Committee had been set up by the WPC Wing of the CIT Ministry following representations from various organisations including community radio stations to the I&B Ministry.

The I&B Ministry had requested the CIT Ministry on 10 May this year to reconsider the decision and roll back the increase in spectrum fee for community radio stations.

NEW DELHI: Although the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has issued 349 letter of intent for setting up community radios in the country, only 115 organisations have operationalised their radio stations.

Thus, the remaining LOI holders will have to apply for necessary clearance from the WPC for frequency allocation and subsequent SACFA clearance to be able to operationalise their stations.

The Ministry considers setting up Community Radio Stations a thrust area and, therefore, wants to help operators.

The Ministry has been informed that there are several communication barriers between LOI holders and WPC, which is preventing many LOI holders to operationalise their community radio stations.

In order to remove these barriers, the Ministry in association with Unicef and WPC Wing of the Department of Telecommunications has organised a Workshop with all those LOI holders who have not been able to make their radio stations operational.

The First Workshop in this direction is being organised on 2 November at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi and there is no fee for attending this workshop.