The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in association with Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi, has successfully organized a three-day Community Radio Awareness Workshop in Dimapur of Nagaland from February 11 to 13.
Various NGOs from Manipur and Nagaland participated in this workshop which aimed to build awareness and clear any doubts among the participants around the procedures to set up a Community Radio Stations like programme types they can follow, coverage area for frequencies, costing, basic requirements, role of community etc.
Prof Madhu Parhar, director, CEMCA who led the workshop along with the team welcomed the different organizations participating in the workshop and shared about the initiatives the Government of India and CEMCA have been taking up to promote community radio in different parts of the country.
Prof Sapu Changkija, Dean, School of Engineering & Technology, Nagaland University, also gave the inaugural address and stressed upon the need of Community Radio Stations in north-east India.
Amit Dwivedi, PMU, Community Radio Cell, MIB also enlisted the advantages of Community Radio along with the details of setting up Community Radio Stations and the various government policies and schemes one need to keep in mind while applying for license.
The workshop also had representatives of various Community Radio Stations from across Northeast India namely, Debanjana Deb Barman of Friends Radio, Tripura and Dr Sangeeta Kakoty of Jnan Tranga from Assam who shared their experiences around the operations and working of CR stations.
With this workshop, the Ministry and CEMCA are looking to guide and support the interested participants in their application for Community Radio Station licence hereby increasing the presence of community radio stations across the eight states of the Northeast.