Mangalore: AIR, Doordarshan Worked Hard to Unite Nation - Dr Heggade
Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (PS/SB)
Mangalore, Nov 4: Mangalore unit of National Federation of Akashavani and Doordarshan Employees (NFADE) held a daylong national seminar on ‘Akashavani – Then and Now’ at the SDM College of Business Management, Mangalore on Thursday November 4. The seminar was organized in co-ordination with Karnataka Media Academy, Bangalore.
The seminar was inaugurated by Dr D Veerendra Heggade, Dharmadhikari of Shree Kshethra Dharmastala.
In his address he said that the radio remained as an effective and educative media after the independence of the country. Both Akashavani and Doordarshan worked hard in uniting the nation from rural areas to urban. He asserted that the south Indians have been able to speak in ‘Hindi’ because of Hindi news and other programmes broadcast in Hindi language. He added that Akashavani promoted sports and boosted agriculture sector in the nation.
Expressing his resentment over the pointless chaos created by some media during Common Wealth Games in India, he said only Akashavani and Doordarshan broadcast the fact and made CWG a grand success. At the same time he called upon the media to depend on facts.
Noted Journalist and former chairman of Prasarbharathi Shree M V Kamath presided.
In his presidential speech he mentioned his 56 years of association with Akashavani and highlighted the role of Akashavani and called upon to strengthen the national broadcast media which has been playing a quintessential role in building national pride among its people by promoting and also safeguarding and promoting India’s cultural vivacity, by reaching out to people in every nook and corner of the country covering 99% of the geographical area not reached by any other media.
He added that however, both Akashavani and Doordshan which are managed by the Prasar Bharathi Board in the last 13 years are mismanaged to the core and are losing their focus and direction. There is a strong move to handover the vast assets of AIR and Doordarshan to Prasar Bharathi Board and to compel it to compete with private channels to amass revenue. This would mean the government funding of national broadcaster would completely disappear and it would be like any other private channel with focus only on revenue generation. He demanded that Akashavani and Doordarshan are in dearth of foreign correspondents. He asked the union government to take back the Prasar Bharathi and called Prasar Bharathi a national joke.
MP Nalin Kumar Kateel released the commemorative issue (souvenir) ‘Banuliya Belaku’ on the occasion. In his speech he said that both Akashavani and Doordarshan made people to peep into the national and international affairs and made rural people aware of the issues of national and international importance.
Anil Kumar S, chairman of NFADE, New Delhi spoke on the occasion. He said that cutting down government funding of the national broadcaster would sound the death knell of AIR and Doordarshan and with that the propagation and highlighting of our distinct culture, folk art and music would receive a severe setback. A commercialized AIR and Doordarshan will be forced to sacrifice transmitting our rich cultural heritage, our classical music, our folk art and traditions. He urged the union government to provide functional autonomy to AIR and DD as without sufficient funds there can be no autonomy in the real sense and impress upon the government and the people on the need to retain Akashavani and Doordarshan as a national broadcaster.
Narayani Damodar of Mangalore Akashavani read out the wishes and messages sent by the various dignitaries who could not be present on the occasion.
Delegates from different fields took part in the seminar.