The headline -- A bit premature surely!
Now that we have given the Minister the opportunity of cornering Sibal, this
would be a good time to bring in the troops and ramp up the pressure --
community members to sit in dharna, sing and dance and scream and shout at
Jantar Mantar.
Arti
Arti Jaiman
Station Director : Gurgaon Ki Awaaz Samudayik Radio Station 107.8 MHz FM
email: [email protected]
website: www.trfindia.org
Gurgaon Ki Awaaz is the first and only civil-society-led community radio
station in the National Capital Region of Delhi. Since 2009, we have been
broadcasting 22X7, in Hindi and Haryanvi, with a team of community reporters
who generate community content with community participation.
--- On Fri, 21/9/12, sajan venniyoor <[email protected]> wrote:
From: sajan venniyoor <[email protected]>
Subject: [cr-india] "Govt to scrap spectrum fee" - ToI
To: "CR India" <[email protected]>
Date: Friday, 21 September, 2012, 8:46 AM
Community radio may get a new lease of life
TNN | Sep 21, 2012
NEW DELHI: The telecom ministry is likely to waive off spectrum fee for
community radiostations following demands for a rollback from information and
broadcasting (I&B) ministry and community radio (CR) organizations. The
spectrum fee is a prohibitive Rs 93,000 for a year.
According to sources, the issue of the high spectrum fee was raised by I&B
ministerAmbika Soni with telecom minister Kapil Sibalon Thursday pressing the
point that the fee would have damaging repercussions on the government's
development agenda.
The telecom ministry had recently increased fee for community radio stations by
five times from Rs 19,000 to Rs 93,000, sparking protests from those running CR
projects.
I&B secretary U K Varma had written to the telecom secretary saying that the
ministry's views were not sought before the decision was taken.
"This five-fold increase in spectrum fee would have a crippling impact on the
growth of community radio stations in India as many organizations would find it
impossible to meet this huge increase in royalty charges," the letter written
to telecom secretary R Chandrashekhar had said.
The ministry has so far given 370 permissions to various NGOs, Krishi Vigyan
Kendra and recognized educational institutions. Around 132 CR stations are
operational in the country.
The high spectrum fee has been a huge discouraging factor for those CR stations
that has been struggling for finances to sustain the model. Community Radio
Association members, including MKSS's Aruna Roy, has also been demanding a
rollback of spectrum fee.
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