ArunPrabha - dedicated DD channel from Arunachal by Aug: Naidu

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu today said a dedicated Doordarshan channel - ArunPrabha will be launched by August from Arunachal Pradesh to seamlessly integrate the Northeast and showcase its rich culture to the rest of the country.
Focus will be on the youth with contemporary entertainment and informative shows, Naidu said while talking to reporters here after presiding over the Joint Hindi Advisory Committee meeting here.
For enhancing outreach through Community Radio (CR), the Minister said 90 per cent subsidy has been recently introduced for setting up of CR stations across the entire NE region, subject to maximum limit of Rs 7.5 lakh.

"I urge all educational institutions and NGO's to leverage the liberal grant offered by the Centre to set up CR stations for the benefit of the common man and reach out to them in their language and dialect," Naidu said.
Pointing out that AIR broadcasts programmes in six languages and 89 dialects in the North Eastern region, he said to leverage the vast infrastructure, state governments in NE have been urged to collaborate with AIR and Doordarshan to spread the development story and their initiatives.
To supplement the efforts of the public broadcaster, he said 13 FM channels have already been operationalised and another 48 channels in 18 cities have been proposed.

"And to ensure adequate participation of private parties, reserve price for border areas with population less than one lakh has been reduced and fixed at Rs 5 lakh and the licence fee for permission holders in NE states is half vis-a-vis other states," the Minister added.