Prasar Bharati has decided to upgrade the Kurseong station of All India Radio (AIR) to a hub of Nepali programme production and broadcast in the country.

As a step in that direction, the AIR’s external service division (ESD) decided that the Nepali services of the ESD would be broadcast from Kurseong from April 1. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by director general (news), AIR, on March 3.

The ESD of the AIR broadcasts programmes in 27 languages, including 15 foreign languages, and it is estimated that these services are for an aggregate duration of 72 hours daily and cover over 100 countries.

Until now, the Nepali services of the ESD were being broadcast by Delhi AIR.

“I am happy to share the news that Prasar Bharati has ordered AIR Kurseong to be upgraded to be the hub of content generation and transmission for Nepali language broadcast in the country,” Darjeeling MP Raju Bista said.

Sources said the AIR’s Kurseong station which had been established in 1962 used to broadcast only local news (of the Darjeeling hills and surrounding areas) in Nepali once a day at 6.50 pm.

“However, from December 26, the Kurseong station started broadcasting news with national content in Nepali four times a day, taking the total number of news bulletins to five,” said a source.

Local musicians, singers, lyricists, writers, dramatists, news readers and news producers among others are likely to benefit from the AIR’s decision to convert the Kurseong station into a hub of Nepali content generation and transmission.

Following the increase in the number of news bulletins in Nepali, the number of vacancies also went up at the Kurseong station.

“From a content creation team of six, the figure has jumped to 21. However, the new inductees have been engaged as ad hoc employees. We would expect proper recruitment through a fair and transparent selection policy,” said a source.

Nepali council plea

Darjeeling MP Bista on Thursday demanded in Parliament the establishment of the Nepali Language Promotion Council.