The Information and Broadcasting Ministry is planning to increase the number of Doordarshan channels in the the North-East region.
According to Ministry officials, at present there is only one 24X7 channel for the region and a proposal for its trifurcation is under consideration. As per the proposal, there can be three 24X7 Doordarshan channels for the North-East: DD Arunprabha for Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim; one for Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland; and a third channel for Assam and Meghalaya.
Sources said that since a single channel cannot meet the requirements of the rich and diverse cultures of the North-East, the need to increase the number of channels for this region has been long felt.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology was informed by Ministry about the proposal to trifurcate the existing North East channel. It was also informed that starting three channels will also be a software intensive exercise as content will be required to be customised as per requirement of a particular state.
Acting on the issue, the parliamentary panel in its report urged the government to accord top priority to these projects and fix time-frame for their operationalisation.