NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary Committee has urged the information and Broadcasting ministry to take speedy steps to recover the dues that content producers and media agencies owe to Doordarshan.

In its review of the I&B ministry, the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology has said that it would like to be told about the action taken against the producers and agencies for not making timely payment.

The Committee also wants to be apprised whether at any time any of the producers or agencies has been blacklisted by the pubcaster for not paying the outstanding dues.

While the complete data has not been compiled for 2011-12, the figures that are available and quoted by the Committee clearly show that content producers and agencies for Doordarshan kendras and its national channels owe Rs 4.96 billion in the fiscal ended 31 March 2011.

Out of this, Rs 3.30 billion is outstanding from producers and Rs 1.66 billion from agencies.

Expressing concern over the huge outstanding amount, the Committee has urged the Government to take urgent initiatives to recover the amount from the various producers and agencies.

According to I&B ministry sources, Doordarshan has given up as old or dead dues amounting to Rs 496.70 million from 174 agencies or production houses as on 31 March 2011.

Arbitration proceedings have begun against 84 producers to get back a sum of Rs 2.93 billion. These 84 include agencies which handled the accounts of Sagar Arts (Rs 499.43 million), Sri Adhikari Brothers (Rs 298.98 million) and Cinevista (Rs 113.70 million), among others.

Arbitration proceedings are due to begin soon against another eight agencies.

A more up-to-date outstanding amount is stated by the Committee. According to it, a total of 235 government agencies owed a sum of Rs 388.04 million as outstanding dues to Doordarshan till 31 July 2011.

Outstanding dues against 65 advertising agencies as on 31 July 2011 amounts to Rs 605.90 million.

The data is based on reports from only 17 kendras about the progress in arbitration or court proceedings.

According to sources though Prasar Bharati had held Open House sittings in Mumbai to go in for out-of-court settlement of all arbitration cases to recover dues pending with Doordarshan for almost a decade, the response had been poor.

Another Parliamentary Committee had been informed by the ministry last year that Prasar Bharati and the ministry are unable to recover the Rs 32.5 million owed to the pubcaster by the Ministries of Railways, Agriculture and Rural Development.

In its report placed in Parliament during the Budget session, the Committee on Assurances said that I&B ministry had, therefore, asked the Committee to drop the assurance given by then Minister S Jaipal Reddy in August 2005 in reply to a question that Prasar Bharati had said it would pursue the various ministries.

While Agriculture owed Rs 15 million, Railways had to Rs 10 million and Rural Development Rs 7.5 million since 2003-04.

The Committee during its questioning of I &B ministry officials found that the sum was owed on account of the campaign ?Irada Naye Bharat Ka? carried out by the pubcaster at the instance of the Prime Minister?s Office.

The reply by the ministry to the Committee in October 2010 said that the ministry and the pubcaster had both made repeated efforts to recover the amount from these ministries. Despite these efforts, it is not possible to recover the amount.

NEW DELHI: A Planned Scheme of "Supporting Community Movement in India" has been conceived to provide grants to Community Radio Stations in the range of Rs 100,000 to Rs 1.5 million depending on the purpose for which the grant is sought.

Under this scheme, a provision has been made to award grants for infrastructure/ equipment to scale the growth of new community radio stations especially in remote and rural areas that have little access to media as well as stations managed by disadvantaged and marginalised communities.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology, while welcoming the move, wanted the Information and Broadcasting to take up the matter urgently with the Planning Commission for its early clearance the plan is yet to receive in-principle approval.

The Ministry has requested a grant of Rs 1.5 billion. While the scheme has been sent to Planning Commission for in-principle approval, an amount of Rs 50 million had been allocated in Budget Estimates 2012-13, out of which Rs 30 million has been earmarked for funding and Rs 20 million for IEC (Information, Education and Communication) activities.
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Asked why only Rs 50 million had been sanctioned when the Ministry had sought Rs 1.5 billion, the Ministry told the Committee that more funds will be requested after in principle approval and the Ministry is in touch with the Planning Commission in this connection.

Apart from taking up the issue of adequate funds for the Scheme during the Twelfth plan with Planning Commission, efforts should also be made for full utilisation of Rs 50 million allocated for the year 2012-13.

Under the scheme, provision has been made to award grants for infrastructure/equipment to scale the growth of new CRS especially in remote and rural areas that have little access to media, as well as stations managed by disadvantaged and marginalised communities.

Broadcasting Engineering Consultant India Ltd. (BECIL), a public sector enterprise under the Ministry has designed cost effective transmitters and antenna for CR stations. BECIL also helps CRS in installation and maintenance throughout the country.

The Committee said it was of the "strong view that lack of financial support being a major hurdle in way of CR expansion, the Scheme will definitely bring good relief and encourage those applicants who refrained from applying due to financial considerations".

A Working Group set up by the Ministry to suggest a mechanism to provide state funding to CRS had earlier suggested a corpus fund but this could not materialise due to Ministry of Finance Guidelines not allowing creation of fund either out of revenue or out of Government borrowing.

The Committee observed that the Government had approved the policy in 2002 for grant of licenses for setting up of CRS to well established education, institutions including IITs/IIMs.

While 130 CRS are operational in the country, the Ministry told the Committee that 1026 applications have been received since 2002 when the first policy of CRS was brought out. Out of 363 permissions issued so far, 165 Grant of permission agreement (GOPA) have been signed and 268 applications are under the consideration for grant of permission at various stages.

The Committee noted with concern that out of the 268 applications, as many as 110 applications were pending with various Ministries such as Home, Defence, Human Resource Development; the Wireless Planning Commission wing of Department of Telecommunications; and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

The Committee felt that the I&B Ministry being the sole authority responsible for spread of CR Movement should co-ordinate with the concerned Ministries/agencies for early clearance of pending applications so that community radio services spread fast in the country reaching out to large population.

NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry?s total plan and non-plan budget for 2012-13 has risen marginally to Rs 27.37 billion compared to Rs 26.44 billion last year and the revised estimates of Rs 26.05 billion.

The allocation for the Ministry includes an outlay of Rs 935.5 million for projects in the north eastern part of the country including Sikkim.

The allocation under the head ?Secretarial-Social Services? has been doubled to Rs 1.27 billion as against the revised estimates for last year of Rs 639.8 million and the 2011-12 allocation of Rs 754.5 million. This will also be spent towards the centenary celebration of Indian cinema, the National Film Heritage Mission, the proposed National Centre for Animation and Gaming, and anti-piracy activities.

With the government reiterating that it will adhere to the sunset date for switching off analogue, this allocation could help create the infrastructure and also awareness about the benefits of digitisation.

The allocation for Press Information Services which includes grants to the Press Council of India has been lowered to Rs 588.9 million from last year?s Rs 592.4 million and the revised estimates of Rs 543.4 million, to meet the expenses for the Press Information Bureau, the Press Council of India, and for running the non-aligned countries news pool.

The allocation to the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre has been marginally reduced to Rs 43.8 million from the revised estimates of Rs 42.8 million in 2011-12 (as against the Rs 45 million allocated in the budget last year). The EMMC was set up for monitoring television and radio channels for violation of programme and advertising codes.

The allocation for advertising and visual publicity has been raised to Rs 1.66 billion as against the allocation last year of Rs 1.23 million, following the increase in the advertising rates of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity.

Meanwhile, for the third year in a row, the government has not announced any investment in the National Film Development Corporation.

The grant-in-aid to Prasar Bharati in the budgetary allocation of the Ministry has been increased to Rs 15.74 billion as against Rs 14.84 billion in 2011-12 and the revised allocation of Rs 15.74 billion.

However, there is increase in the Ministry?s investment in Prasar Bharati: with Rs 4.01 billion in the plan outlay and an additional Rs 4 billion in the non-plan outlay as against last year?s total investment of Rs 3.8 billion which was revised later in the year to Rs 2.76 billion.

Prasar Bharati sources told indiantelevision.com said this had been done to meet the extra expenditure on salaries which has fallen on the shoulders of the Government since all Prasar Bharati employees who were in employment as on 5 October 2007 have been given deemed deputation status.

While the grant-in-aid is to cover the gap in resources for meeting revenue expenditure, the investment is to finance the capital expenditure of the pubcaster.

However, despite the reference in his speech to the centenary of Indian cinema, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has announced a drastic cut in the budget for the film sector in the Ministry.

The budget for the film sector for 2012-13 is Rs 841.1 million as against the allocation of Rs 1.37 billion and revised estimates of Rs 1.34 billion. There is an additional outlay of Rs 66.7 million towards certification of cinematographic films.

NEW DELHI: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting S Jagathrakshakan said today that community radio stations had empowered the masses and gave them a sense of belonging by effectively facilitating the growth of peoples? empowerment in the far and remote corners of the country.

He said CRS had bridged the digital divide as the aim was to connect the aspirations of the people to the information highway. CRS provides a platform to people to create their individual and collective identities.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the Second National Community Radio Sammelan, which commenced today with the objective of carving out a new roadmap for mainstreaming community radio as an effective outreach tool for community empowerment.

The three day event, organised by the I&B Ministry in association with Commonwealth Educational Media centre for Asia (CEMCA), also saw the presentation of the first National CRS awards.

I&B Secretary Uday Kumar Varma outlined the roadmap for the growth of the community radio movement in the 12th Five Year plan. It was necessary to target the uncovered areas in the country with a cost effective and operational business model, he said.

The Secretary called upon the participants to avoid delays in operationalising the licences in view of the scarcity and squatting over spectrum. For the movement to reach a sizeable target it was critical to be innovative, encourage out of the box thinking and learn from the best practices. A critical factor determining the growth of the movement was the need to focus on cost effective technology and research.

Varma said the Ministry had submitted a proposal to the planning Commission regarding state funding in the next five year plan. For being an effective dissemination tool it was necessary to position the relevance of the medium in disaster management.

The awards were given in five categories: Thematic, Community Engagement, Promoting Local Culture, Most Creative/Innovative Programme Content, and Sustainability Model Award.

The Ministry has so far issued 363 permissions to set up Community Radio Stations in the country. Out of this, 126 stations have become operational while others are in the pipeline.

The Sammelan has brought together more than 150 stakeholders including Community Radio operators, UN partners, activists, Government departments and experts from various countries like USA, UK, Australia and South Africa.

In the last two years, Ministry has taken several initiatives to strengthen the community radio movement in India. Permission process for the CR applications has been fast tracked through better coordination with stakeholder Ministries. People can also now apply online and track the status of their applications at www.cronlineindia.net. This has brought about transparency and accountability in the system. A Facilitation Centre has also been opened up in the Ministry with a toll-free phone number where people can call up for any information relating to community radio. Due to these initiatives the number of permissions issued by the Ministry for setting up community radio stations has increased from 186 to 363 and number of operational CRS has increased from 64 to 126 in the last two years.

The Ministry has been organising awareness and capacity building Workshops all over the country from 2007 onwards to create awareness about Community Radio Policy. Around 32 Workshops have been organised so far. These Workshops have proved to be useful not only to spread awareness but also build capacities of the NGOs and other organizations to operate Community Radio Stations in an effective manner.

The Ministry has partnered with Ek Duniya Anek Aaawaz (EDAA) which is an audio content exchange platform for community radio stations, to have a separate micro-site on EDAA for the coverage of the 2nd National Community Radio Sammelan on new media platforms.

EDAA is a web based open content exchange platform for community radio broadcasters. The platform enables the CR stations and other content producers to share their audio content and other resources, thus facilitating meaningful utilisation of resources breaking geographical boundaries. This site is operated by OneWorld Asia, an NGO.