Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 25: Six years after the distribution of Television Sets and Direct to Home (DTH) receivers in Jammu and Kashmir in blatant violation of Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting guidelines, the State Government has woken up from the deep slumber and directed Deputy Commissioners of 18 districts to furnish the requisite details on the issue on May 29.
The State Government, which was supposed to ensure distribution of Television Sets and DTH receivers strictly in accordance with the guidelines of Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, never bothered to see whether the objective behind sanctioning and procurement of 20,000 DTH/TV sets for the Jammu and Kashmir by the Prasar Bharti was achieved.
The Government came to know about the issue only when the Principal Accountant General (PAG), J&K detected the unfruitful expenditure pertaining to awaited utilization details of TV sets and DTH receivers since April 2008 and approached the senior officers seeking detailed reply from them on the draft paragraph for inclusion in the CAG report ending March 31, 2014.
It is pertinent to mention here that EXCELSIOR in its edition dated May 5, 2014 had exclusively carried a news item highlighting that due to unfruitful expenditure the Prasar Bharti’s initiative for border and far-flung areas got scuttled.
The exercise, which the State Government was required to conduct several years back, is going to begin as taking serious note of the issue, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister has convened a meeting of Deputy Commissioners of 18 districts on May 29, 2014 at Civil Secretariat, Srinagar, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
The Deputy Commissioners of Anantnag, Budgam, Jammu, Kathua, Kishtwar, Udhampur, Poonch, Rajouri, Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian, Baramulla, Kupwara, Kargil, Samba, Doda, Reasi and Leh have been directed the furnish requisite details pertaining to the issue so that corrective measures could be taken in order to achieve the objective behind sanctioning such a large number of TV sets/DTH receivers, sources said.
According to the information available with EXCELSIOR, in the districts of Srinagar, Ganderbal and Bandipora, all the allotted DTH/TV sets were installed and information in this regard was furnished to the concerned authorities. However, as far as Budgam and Anantnag districts are concerned against 350 and 400 allotted TV sets/DTH receivers not even one set or receiver was installed.
Similar was the situation in Pulwama and Shopian where not even one TV set/DTH receiver was installed against allotment of 300 sets each. In Kulgam district, 210 sets were installed against allotment of 300. In Baramulla and Kupwara, no TV set/DTH receiver was installed despite allotment of 400 sets for each of these districts. Similar was the fate of DTH and TV sets in Kargil where not even single set was installed despite the allotment of 700 units.
In Kathua, 267 DTH/TV sets were installed against allotment of 430 while as in Samba out of 330 allotted DTH/TV sets only 30 were installed. In Jammu and Doda, not even single TV/DTH set was installed although 330 and 580 sets respectively were allotted to these districts. In Kishtwar district, against allotment of 580 DTH/TV sets 433 were installed.
It is pertinent to mention here that a total of 10,000 DTH receivers and 10,000 TV sets along with accessories were procured by the Prasar Bharti at a cost of Rs 9.70 crore and supplied free of cost to the State Government for installation in the areas where no Doordarshan terrestrial signal reaches and were also not covered by cable networking.
However, it has been observed by the PAG that the concerned authorities distributed DTH/TV sets without any survey to identify the areas, which were not covered by terrestrial transmitters/ cable networking. Due to installation/issue of TV sets/DTH receivers in the areas where terrestrial transmitters were already installed and without identification of uncovered areas like border and far-flung areas, the envisaged purpose of enhancing viewership of television in border/far-flung areas was defeated besides resulting into unfruitful expenditure of Rs 1.95 crore and blocking of funds to the extent of Rs 1.08 crore besides depriving the benefits of the scheme to intended beneficiaries (inhabitants of uncovered areas).
As per the guidelines, the sites were to be selected out of uncovered areas (where no DD terrestrial signal reaches) and Anganwadis, Government Schools (from primary to higher secondary), Public Health Centers, village Panchayats, Corporate Societies, Associations run by local people working for peace and harmony in the insurgency hit areas, those villages which have Village Defence Committees, Youth Clubs and Tribal Autonomous Councils were eligible for distribution of DTH and TV sets. The Government had also to ensure power supply to the selected sites.
But these guidelines were flouted with impunity.
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