Fund paucity mars Amritsar station to battle Pak radio

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 26

The high power radio station that was installed near the International Border (IB) with Pakistan at Gharinda village in Amritsar in 2007 is yet to be made operational for want of funds.

The radio tower with a coverage area of about 110-130 sq km is expected to counter Lahore Radio, which is transmitted deep into the Indian territory. Experts say the Amritsar radio station must be commissioned at the earliest to counter Pakistani propaganda. The radio station is expected to transmit signal to Sialkot, Gujranwala and Lahore in Pakistan. However, Digital Terrestrial Transmitters are to be fixed here.

The authorities have spent Rs 20 crore on the radio station and await another Rs 4 crore to commence operations. Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had planned to set up radio stations in Amritsar, Raebareli and Amethi in 2007.

Though work on the All India Radio stations in Raebareli and Amethi had started much later, the studios were built there by January 2014. Kulwant Singh Ankhi, the president of Amritsar Vikas Manch, said Rae Bareli and Amethi were more important constituencies as these were represented by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. But there was nobody to push the case for the holy city.

Residents of Amritsar feel that the project has been suffering from unnecessary delays. They demand that the city that is the religious and cultural centre of the state should have at least one local radio channel. The radio stations in Jalandhar, Chandigarh, Patiala, Bathinda and Ludhiana have their own studios. Local resident Ankhi recalled that before 1947, All India Radio, Lahore, provided first-grade broadcasting service in Amritsar. On persistent demand, Amritsar got a medium wave station of All India Radio in 1948. But in 1953, All India Radio, Jalandhar, was strengthened and the radio station at Amritsar was shut down.