[cr-india] Bihar villagers to shake a leg to FM radio tunes

[sajan venniyoor]

The story seems to suggest that the Bihar government is setting up 'community radio' stations in the villages of Patna and Nalanda. What exactly is their 'Community Radio Project'? 

In Karnataka, as in Punjab and Haryana, the state govt had only offered limited funding to eligible NGOs/CSOs to set up community radio stations. The Bihar project seems a lot more ambitious than that. An earlier story (16 June, ToI) stated that "the state government is seriously planning to launch its own FM stations", and then qualified this eye-popping statement to say that "the state government has selected 10 schools of Patna and Nalanda districts to operate these FM stations."

It is perfectly feasible for Bihar schools to apply for CR licenses. But when you openly advertise that "these schools would transmit the programmes, the contents of which would be prepared and developed at the Soochana Bhavan", I don't see the Central Govt. falling over itself to hand over CR licenses for the benefit of the state Information & Public Relations Department (IPRD), the occupants of Soochana Bhavan. 

The ToI story helpfully adds that "the state government is planning to set up 800-1,000 community radio stations." Did someone misplace a decimal point or am I missing something here?

Sajan


On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 sakthi vel wrote :
>After Karnataka farmers, it is now the turn of
>villagers in Bihar to swing to the tunes of FM radio.
>The Bihar government is actively considering providing
>all the villages with their own Frequency Modulation
>(FM) radio stations.
>
>If things go as planned, the FM radio stations would
>start broadcasting their programmes in the rural areas
>of Patna and Nalanda districts from November this year
>under the Community Radio Project, said Vivek Singh,
>Secretary of Information and Public Relation
>department here.
>////////////////
>Source: - Dnaindia.com 29/06
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