Government to facilitate growth of
Community Radio Sector in the country: Shri Arun Jaitley
Shri
Arun Jaitley Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information &
Broadcasting said that Radio as a medium of communication had made a comeback
in view of the growing popularity of FM transmission and its reach. Community
Radio as a variant of the medium had provided a value addition to the narrative
by addressing the information needs regionally, addressing diverse status and
issues and capturing the language, culture and social practices. Shri Arun Jaitley stated this while
delivering his address at the inaugural session of the 6th National Community
Radio Sammelan here today.
Elaborating
further, the Minister said the scope for expansion in the sector was vast in
view of the communication needs at the regional level. It had the power to
connect with people by exchanging experiences and content of programs. As a
consequence, this provided the bandwidth for effective programming to grow on a
sustainable basis. Shri Jaitley said that the government would facilitate the
medium through policies which would spur the growth in the total number of operational
community radio stations in the future. The Minister lauded the efforts of the
stations which focussed on sustained campaigns on critical issues related to
health and education. This had led to people imbibing the spirit of the
messages.
Minister
of State for Information & Broadcasting, Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore said
that Community Radio was an important communication medium that empowered local
people and had a connect with them. It could play an important role in
dissemination of information about government schemes and policies to the common
man in their local language, which in many cases has not reached them through
conventional mediums of communication such as Television and FM Radio.
Elaborating
further, Col. Rathore said that Community Radio could help in disseminating
benefits of various government initiatives such as Mudra Yojna, Fasal Bima
Yojna, and Soil Health Card to the local people. He said Community Radio should
inspire people by informing them about the local achievements and endeavours of
people who were one amongst them. He also encouraged participation of all the
concerned stakeholders to take the Community Radio Movement in the country further
ahead.
Speaking
on the occasion Shri Sunil Arora, Secretary Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting said that Community Radio empowered people who generally found no
voice in traditional media. He said that Community Radio provided empowering
experiences to farmers, local fishermen, folk artists who shared their stories
in programmes conducted by the community radio stations. He said that Ministry
of I&B had opened a Community Radio facilitation Centre at Shastri Bhawan
to streamline approval process for the CR stations. Elaborating further he
mentioned that Ministry had given permissions to 439 CR stations out of which
191are already in operation. He also said that the setting of agenda for this
year National Sammelan was a participative process wherein feedback from CR
stations across the country was solicited.
Shri Arun Jaitley Minister for Finance,
Corporate Affairs and Information & Broadcasting and Minister
of State for Information & Broadcasting, Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore also felicitated
the winners of the 5th National Community Radio Awards. The award
for the most creative/Innovative Programme content was presented to ‘Radio
Benziger’ from Kerala for their program ‘Sukrutham’. The other categories
included Awards for Program with Best Theme, Community Engagement, and
Promoting local culture. They
also released the Community Radio Compendium and Community Radio Map which illustrated
Community Radio Stations across the nation.
Courtesy: pib.nic.in
Courtesy: pib.nic.in
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