[cr-india] Pirate radio stations in Orissa

[Vickram Crishna]

The original news item as published in Mumbai stated very clearly in 
the headline (it may have been either the Times of India or Asian 
Age, about 4-5 days back) that the content being broadcast 'from a 
powerful transmitter' was anti-national. However, the body of the 
article revealed that what the police actually found was 'vulgar' 
music (was this pirated from MTV/Channel V on TV or was it the filmi 
music being broadcast over 5 FM channels in Mumbai? Alas, this may 
never be revealed). The news item below confirms the rather 
innocuous, even if of rather questionable taste, content that the 
stations have been delivering to listeners in their immediate 
vicinity.

I have seen no response on this list, rather to my surprise. Are we 
silent about the concept of village level low power transmitters 
being used by local villagers to broadcast their own selections of 
entertainment and features to their neighbors? Or did everyone just 
miss this item when it was first published?

I think we have all seen the spread of loud horn type PA systems 
being used to deliver various kinds of audio content to anyone within 
ear-splitting range. If you are in the habit of visiting villages or 
urban slums, you will find these systems decorating the neighborhood.

Are we now to assume that the GoI would prefer this (perfectly legal) 
means of broadcast to the far more personal and private (and 
definitely less noise-polluting) kind of listening that FM affords?

>Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 20:16:00 +0530
>
>Orissa police unearth illegal radio stations
>
>
>PTI [ SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2002  2:45:40 PM ]
>
>KENDRAPARA: After detection of clandestine broadcast from two low power
>transmitters in Orissa's coastal belt this week, police have come to know
>that five more such unauthorised radio stations were functioning in the
>region.
>
>
>These five transmitters, which operated from Kendrapara and Bhadrak
>districts, had gone off the air following the police crackdown, official
>sources said.
>
>
>Police have identified Banipal, Jambu and Batighar villages in Kendrapara
>district and Harishpur and Kainthakola near Dhamra in Bhadrak district from
>where programmes in Oriya and Bengali were being broadcast within a radius
>of five to ten km.
>
>
>While a transmitter was seized from Talchua village in Kendrapara district,
>another was recovered from Bandhamundi village in Balasore district. Two
>persons were arrested in this connection after cases were registered under
>the Wireless and Telegraph act.
>
>
>Police had found that some of the Bangladeshi immigrants living in the area
>in large numbers were involved in the broadcasts.
>
>
>The sources, however, said that inquiries conducted so far had revealed that
>the contents of the broadcasts, though illegal, did not contain any
>anti-national material

-- 
Vickram