Jammu and Kashmir today sought enhancement of the capital subsidy from existing 50 percent to 90 percent for setting up of Community Radio stations in the State.The issue was flagged by J&K’s Director Information and Public Relations, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary at the 2-Day State Information Ministers Conference (SIMCON) which began at Vigyan Bhawan here today.SIMCON is being organized by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting first time after 2009 to focus on “Reform, Perform & Transform - A New Dimension of Communication”.Responding to Dr Shahid’s plea, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, Mr Ajay Mittal assured the conference that, to begin with, the Ministry would provide 75% capital subsidy for setting up Community Radio Stations in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeastern states. He also assured the conference that the Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity (DAVP) will provide advertisement support to the Community Radio Stations in the State to meet the recurring costs.Pertinently, during a Community Radio Awareness Workshop organized by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in Jammu last month it was told that out of 200 Community Radio Stations operational across the country, there is only one such station in J&K.
The State has 18 Community Radio dark districts and as per the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting guidelines every district in the State has to have at least two such radio stations.The Jammu and Kashmir Government is now planning to promote setting up of Community Radios in educational and technical institutions of the State.During today’s deliberations at SIMCON, Dr Shahid also called for organizing Children’s Film Festivals across all districts of J&K. He also asked the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to launch news bulletins and programmes in Urdu, Kashmiri, Gojri, Pahari, Ladakhi and Dogri on the national hookup of Doordarshan. He also demanded a PIB like bureau for Jammu Press Club for wider outreach and association of local journalists in various endeavors of the Government.The Union Secretary Ministry of Information and Broadcasting assured Dr Shahid that the J&K-specific issues flagged by him would be given due consideration.
Besides Secretary, Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ajay Mittal, Director General, Press Information Bureau, A P Frank Noronha, Director General Doordarshan, Supriya Sahu, Director General All India Radio, Fayaz Shehryar, Chief Secretaries, Administrative Secretaries (Information) and Directors of Information from various States and other officials of the Central government participated in today’s deliberations.The issues discussed during today’s deliberations related to broadcasters, radio programmes, community radio, social media, streamlining of DAVP, promotion of film making, outreach programmes, regulatory and monitoring mechanism, cable TV digitization and issues related to print media.Today's deliberations were aimed at providing administrative and professional inputs on various issues for setting the agenda for the Information Ministers deliberations on December 10 to be chaired by the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Venkaiah Naidu.The two day conference is aimed at promoting partnership in the dissemination process between Centre and States, enabling effective communication to the people and on sector specific collaboration in the Films, Broadcasting & Information sector.