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Rs.100
cr to Strengthen Prasar Bharati
Transmitters along Pak,China borders
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Even as Pakistani and Chinese channels, with their strong
transmission powers, are available on the Indian side of the border,
Indian channels, particularly Doordarshan, riding on weak and ageing
infrastructure, are not available even within India in parts of
those regions. |
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The government seems to have woken up to this lacunae at last, as it
has decided to spend Rs 100 crore this year to augment the hardware
in the high-power, medium-power and low-power transmitters along the
Indian borders with the two countries.
And if Prasar Bharati implements a suggestion from the government,
the manpower required for the upkeep of the strengthened
transmitters might be outsourced from among the locally-available
retired army and police personnel with knowledge of technology.
The government has woken up, though belatedly, to the fact that
channels from across the border often beam propagandist programming
into Indian areas while in many areas along the border, public
broadcaster DD’s signals are so weak that they are not available
even within Indian areas.
“It’s a shame that our channels cannot be seen there, while
theirs are easily seen here. Our channels get jammed if their
signals in the same frequencies are more powerful,” Information
and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said.
She said the government had decided to spend Rs 100 crore this year
to augment the transmission hardware along the border areas.
The hardware augmentation would be carried out in transmitters lined
up along the border with Pakistan from Jammu & Kashmir to
Gujarat and the border with China along Arunachal Pradesh. |
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