NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary Committee has recommend that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry should objectively assess Plan activities for the Kisan Channel so that the Rs 8 crore made at the Budget Estimate stage for creation of capital assets could be optimally utilized.
It noted that the Scheme had initially been approved with a provision of Rs 100 crore during 2014-15. However for the year 2015-16, an allocation of Rs 45 crore had been made at the BE stage which was reduced to Rs 26.25 crore at the Revised Estimates stage, the whole of which was utilized till 31 March 2016.
Regarding the physical targets achieved under this Scheme during 2015-16, the Ministry informed the Standing Parliamentary Committee for Information Technology which examines issues relating to I and B that interim technical facilities were set up at the Central Production Centre to meet the minimum functional requirements.
The Committee was informed that the entire allocation of Rs 10 crore made in BE 2015-16 for creation of capital assets (Revenue Plan) had been withdrawn at the RE stage which had impacted activities such as purchase order of important equipment such as HD Zoom Lens, Collaborative Non-Linear Editing (NLE), Batteries and Chargers, etc. It has been stated that tenders for these facilities have already been received and are under various stages of evaluation.
The Committee was told that out of Rs 60 crore allocated under BE 2016-17 for Kisan Channel, Rs 52 crore has been earmarked for content development and dissemination and Rs 8 crore for creation of capital assets.
The DD Kisan channel was launched by prime minister Narendra Modi on 26 May last year for supporting the cause of the country’s farming population.
On being asked about the fund that had been utilized out of Rs 100 crore provided for this scheme, the Ministry in a written note stated that Rs 49.36 crore had been utilized till date for publicity at the time of launch of the Kisan channel and content development and dissemination.
Technical facilities at 18 regional Kendras are also to be augmented to strengthen programme production activities for Kisan Channel. As part of this, Electronic News Gathering (ENG) based Field Production facilities, Post Production facility & Preview facility are envisaged to be provided to the above Kendras during 2016-17.
The Interim technical set up, meeting broadly the Studio Production, ENG production, Post-production and Play-out requirement with optimum technical facility, were arranged with the existing technical facilities available at the CPC Kendra as well as through diversion from other Kendras in the network. Technical facilities planned for interim set up have been completed during 2015-16.
