Public Broadcaster Prasar Bharati has received a proposal from Doordarshan Kendra, Hyderabad to create an interim set up of a new regional centre at Vijaywada to maintain the cultural and economic identity of Andhra Pradesh.
This was stated by Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar in response to a written question in the Lok Sabha.
“Prasar Bharati has informed that a proposal has been received from Doordarshan Kendra, Hyderabad to create an interim set up of new Regional Kendra of Doordarshan at Vijaywada for Andhra Pradesh to maintain the cultural and economic identities of the state,” Javadekar said.
Currently, Doordarshan Vijaywada is a Programme Generating Facility and there is a proposal to start 2-hours terrestrial transmission from 5 PM to 7 PM including a 15-minute Telugu news bulletin as an interim arrangement.
He said the rest of 22 hours of transmission will be relayed from Doordarshan Kendra, Hyderabad.
Javadekar was responding to a Lok Sabha member’s written question in which he asked if Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were not ready to share state-run TV channels.
Replying to another question, Javadekar said an amount of Rs 103.02 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 32.23 crore in 2014-15 has been spent on ‘Bharat Nirman’ integrated advertisement campaign.
“Currently, there is no proposal to undertake any campaign under the umbrella of ‘Bharat Nirman’,” he said.