Resource crunch prevents AIR’s plans from taking off

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New Delhi, Dec 7: All India Radio (AIR) is in a state of limbo due to a resource crunch. According to a source in public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, around 18 All India Radio (AIR) stations were installed and then locked up in recent months, even before these had begun airing programmes.

Some of these stations are located at Himmatnagar, Mandla, Saraipalli, Machrela, Dharmapuri and Churachandpur, cutting across Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa and Tamil Nadu. Nearly Rs 100 crore would have been spent on these 18 stations, keeping in mind the average installation cost of Rs 3-4 crore per facility.

The stations have been locked up because there’s no money to run and maintain them, the source added. But there’s no formal order of a shutdown of transmitters yet.

While the total cost of running AIR has been estimated at Rs 700 crore, the government has approved grants worth Rs 500 crore. With AIR income around Rs 100 crore, there’s a definite shortfall, officials confirmed. Employees’ salary (nearly Rs 200 crore) and power bills (Rs 100 crore) are among the essential expenditure of AIR.

As a result, new projects are finding it difficult to take off. That includes ambitious digital schemes of AIR.

“They too have been unofficially dumped,” a source said.

Recently, a question was asked in the Rajya Sabha on whether the government was aware that a 10-KW capacity radio station was set up in Dharmapuri (Tamil Nadu) at a cost of Rs 4 crore but hasn’t started functioning due to shortage of staff.

To that, information and broadcasting minister S Jaipal Reddy replied: “A full fledged radio station (10 KW FM transmitter with studio) at Dharmapuri is technically ready. Requisite staff for operation and maintenance of the radio station, is yet to be approved by the competent authority.” Without giving a timeframe as to when the station would be operational, the minister said: “It will start broadcast after the sanction of staff for operation and maintenance.”

Also, even as eight AIR stations have been proposed for Uttaranchal, there’s a rider. Mr Reddy told Parliament a few days ago that the Uttaranchal schemes would be implemented, subject to approval and availability of resources.