[cr-india] CR awareness program for Pondicherry villagers

[sajan venniyoor]

Another story on the CR workshop in Pondicherry. Full of factual errors, as
usual: "32 licences were granted to NGOs..."

I wish.

Sajan

*Community radio awareness programme for Pondy villagers*
 July 2 2008, Express News Service,
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20080701230244

The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in association with the
CommonWealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, organised its third regional
consultation of the Community Radio Awareness (CRA) for south zone at Sri
Manakula Vinayagar Engineering College (SMVEC) on Monday.

Inaugurating the function, Chief Minister N Rangasamy said the college
showed great interest in introducing new concepts and hence students were
keen on joining there. All government schemes should be announced through
radio, he said.

In Puducherry, there are three CRA centres, which help in quickly conveying
important messages to the villagers. Professor J A K Tareen,
Vice-Chancellor, Puducherry University, presided over the function.

He said that there were 115 deemed universities in the country and if each
and every university and college adopted a village or extended health care
facilities to them, it would help in developing the rural pockets. Zohra
Chatterji, IAS officer, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and also
recipient of Prime Minister's Award for Excellence-2008, spoke about the
status of community radio. According to her, only in the late 1990s did the
CRA gain momentum.

On the whole, 246 FM licences have been granted by the Union Government so
far. Of this, 32 licences were granted to NGOs and 42 to educational
departments. Prof N S Ramegowda, former Vice-Chancellor, Open University,
Karnataka, said that every village should have a radio set and can fine tune
them for receiving FM signals. While 50 per cent of the CRA programmes are
targeting students, the rest are meant for the development of the community,
he said.
**
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