Dhanbad residents on Wednesday wrote to Chief Minister Heman Soren and Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur demanding inclusion of private FM radio operators in the list of broadcasters of the district, perturbed over the prolonged delay.
Surendra Arora, a social activist and former president of Federation of Dhanbad Zila Chamber of Commerce who sent tweets to the two leaders in this regard on Wednesday, claimed while the residents of Ranchi and Jamshedpur are availing the services of several private FM operators providing wide range of entertainment options, the residents of Dhanbad could only listen to Vividh Bharti programmes due to lack of any private FM operators in Dhanbad.
“Entertainment brings happiness which is the most powerful medicine that helps our mental health and well being,” said Arora and added that it also means downing the monotony of life.
Further stressing on the demand for the inclusion of private FM service operators, Arora said, “Broadcast radio today reaches a staggering 99 percent of population and rural India relies overwhelmingly on it for information.”
He added that audio programmes can easily surmount the barriers linked to literacy.
Notably, the demand for a radio station in Dhanbad was long pending and finally the radio station was established on 2.5 acres of land in Narayanpura Mouza of Dhanbad five years ago.
Lack of transmitter at the radio station however was a major hurdle in the launching of the railway station despite the establishment of station but the transmitter was also installed during 2019 after which broad casting of Vividh Bharti programmes began but the private FM Radio operators are yet to launch their operation in Dhanbad.
Echoing sentiments, Md Sohrab, another trader of Purana Bazar locality said,“ Radio personalities the experience of listeners, driving them to use their imagination while deciphering what’s unfolding.”
“Radio being the cheaper medium of broadcasting allows broadcasting in a wide variety of languages, dialects and creative forms,” said Sohrab and added that the local radio stations have a more significant role to play .
