India: Thane Municipal Corporation to start FM radio service
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The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has earmarked a whopping Rs 20 lakh in its annual budget for starting an FM radio service.
TMC commissioner Sanjay Sethi presented the annual budget for the year 2006-2007 to Standing Committee chairman Ravindra Phatak on Wednesday. The corporation has also got relevant permission from the ministry of information and broadcasting to start the radio service. Speaking about the radio proposal, Sethi said, "To reach out to every citizen of Thane, the TMC has decided to start a radio service on Frequency Modulation (FM) and have made arrangements of Rs 20 lakh in the budget. After the 26/7 deluge, communication was the main problem. Hence, we decided on our own 'Radio TMC' to disseminate information on education, environment, projects, drives and announcements." T he budget does not propose any hike in the taxes for the common man, except for a small increase in fees for facilities such as hospital services and swimming pools. The Rs 567.71-crore budget has projected the total growth of Rs 488.33 crore in its revenue through property tax, water tax, advertising fee, octroi and development charges. In addition, the corporation hopes to get Rs 60.75 crore from various loans and Rs 17.68 crore from government donations. Note with the conclusion of the first round of FM Phase II licence biddings for category A+ and A cities leading to the launch of more radio stations across metros and mini metros, the existing established players are gearing up for a makeover. One such radio station in Mumbai was recently seen by Radio City, the private FM radio band promoted by Music Broadcast Pvt Ltd. Source Comments: Compiled from CR-India list Sajan Venniyoor, Prasar Bharati: How on earth did the Thane Muncipal Corporation manage to wangle an FM radio license? They certainly didn't bid for a commercial FM license, and they are not entitled to apply under the existing 'Community Radio' policy either, which is exclusively for campus radio. Atanu Garai, OWSA: According to the current CR policy well established educational institutions/organizations like Universities and Institutes of Technology/Management and residential schools recognized by the Central Government or the State Government can set up FM radio stations. Within this policy, it may be possible for the municipalities to set up FM radio as they are running schools (including residential schools) and they serve as the parent body of those schools. Ashish Sen, VOICES My understanding was that all the educational institutions had to be A) residential and B) the campus radio station would be housed within this area . How would this work with the TMC? Atanu Garai, OWSA: Mahesh Rajdeokar, Public Relations Officer, TMC informs me that the Corporation has just applied to the Ministry and it is yet to get the license. They are planning to provide broadcasting services for the schools within the municipality. |
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