AMN
Government has enhanced the subsidy amount to set-up Community Radio stations across the country from the existing 50 per cent to 75 per cent. This was stated by the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu who reviewed the functioning of various media units of the Ministry in Chennai yesterday.
Speaking to media in Chennai he said universities and NGOs will be encouraged to set up community radios and States in the north eastern region will be given subsidy upto 90 per cent. The minister said that community radio is an empowering and very useful tool to cater to the people in local dialect which are of immediate relevance to the community.
Responding to a question about enhancing the services of public broadcasters on par with private ones, Mr. Naidu said that he has directed officials to produce quality programmes to compete with private FM channels. He said, public broadcasting is an essential service, keeping this in view the Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose All India Radio and Doordarshan for his ‘Mann ki baat’ which is aired in different regional languages apart from Hindi.
Stressing that news on development communication is critical for nation building, he said mere sensationalism would not last long in the minds of the public. On enhancing the services of Press Information Bureau(PIB), Mr. Naidu said that Tamil version of PIB would be launched by August 15 in Tamil Nadu.
On upgrading facilities at Doordarshan Kendra, he said 245 studio high definition cameras and 254 field cameras have been procured for upgrading the infrastructure. Mr. Venkaiah Naidu will meet the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, K. Palaniswami today to discuss central and state government projects.