Sonowal writes to I&B minister to retain status of AIR, DDK-Dibrugarh

With Prasar Bharati issuing directives for reassigning All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan Kendra (DDK) in Dibrugarh as relay centres and curtailing their capacity to produce own programmes, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has raised the matter with information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar.

Through the letter, Sonowal urged the I&B minister to retain the present status of both AIR and Doordarshan Dibrugarh centres as these centres have been instrumental in reflecting the cultural mosaic and indigenous traditions of communities in Upper Assam and even eastern districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Dibrugarh centres of Doordarshan, functioning as a full-fledged station since 1993, and AIR, which completed 50 years in 2019, should not be relegated to the status of relay centres as Guwahati centres of AIR and DD would be overburdened to appropriately mirror the rich cultural nuances of this part of country, he wrote.

‘Loss of employment due to downgrade of Dibrugarh centres’

The chief minister, in his letter, also touched upon the concerns caused by transfer of artistes and employees from DD Dibrugarh to outside Northeast region without replacements and underlined the resentment caused among the leading citizens of the state about the possible loss of employment opportunities for local artistes in both the centres.

For preserving and sustaining the language, culture and heritage of the state, the present status of AIR and DDK, Dibrugarh, should be retained and they should be allowed to transmit own locally produced programmes, Sonowal wrote in his letter to the Union minister.

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