Statement of I&B Minister on Launch of DD’s Urdu Channel
Following is the text of the statement made in the Lok Sabha today by the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Shri P.R. Dasmunsi regarding the launching of Doordarshan’s Urdu Channel by Prasar Bharati:-
“Urdu is an important language of India with about 52 million people having declared it as their mother tongue. The actual number of people who can speak or understand Urdu is considered to be much higher, whose population is spread all over the country, from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in the South to Uttranchal and Jammu & Kashmir in the North; Punjab and Rajasthan in the West to Jharkhand and Bihar in the East. Urdu is the official language in Jammu & Kashmir and second official language in states like Delhi, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Urdu has a very rich literature and cultural tradition dating back to several sanctuaries. Different genres of Urdu, including poetry, satire, sufi literature etc. have made their mark on the literary and cultural history of India. With the birth of cinema and broadcasting in India, Urdu became very popular with cine-goers, film critics and radio listeners.
Doordarshan is producing and telecasting Urdu programmes in a number of its channels. However, there is no channel exclusively devoted to Urdu language and its rich culture at national level. The present limited content and duration of Urdu programmes and news is insufficient to meet the information, education and cultural needs of the Urdu speaking population.
Realising the immense felt need of such a step and positively reacting to the large public opinion expressed in this direction, an assurance was given in this House on 23rd August, 2004 by my predecessor Shri Jaipal Reddy ji regarding the launch of an Urdu Channel by Doordarshan. I am happy to report to this House that despite constraints of man power, Prasar Bharati is all set to make a small beginning in fulfilling the assurance by launching the DD Urdu Channel from the 15th August, 2006.
This would not only be a historic step in the life of Prasar Bharati but also an event of great significance on the media scene as a whole. The DD Urdu Channel, which is being launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister will initially have a daily transmission of 7 hours. It is subsequently planned to extend the transmission to 24 hours per day. Efforts to develop software for this purpose are already underway.
Currently, the Urdu Channel would operate from CPC, Delhi in view of the availability of uplinking facility there and would gradually shift to Akashwani Bhawan. During this period, uplink would be on Insat-3A transponder. When Doordarshan gets space in Insat-4A in the near future, Urdu Channel would be placed on this new satellite. With the expansion of bouquet of Doordarshan’s DTH service, DD Direct +, from 50 to 100 channel, one slot would be allotted for DD Urdu Channel.
DD Urdu is conceived a heritage Channel, it will have segments on entertainment and enrichment of culture and information. The transmission to began with will have one in-house segment in the genre of news magazine of half and hour duration. Another one are long programme will be done in-house by DDK, Mumbai.
We are certain that this Channel will have a large audience among people of all communities and bring them closer to the mainstream giving there language aspirations and identity and medium of expression. The Government is also well aware that such a Channel would have its positive impact on the employment scenario in the country in general, due to large opportunities thrown open in the field of content creation and ancillary areas ones the Channel becomes a full-fledged 24 hour entity.”
RS/HCK/MK.
(Release ID :19876)