Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday requested Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tiwari to provide additional 5,000 Direct to Home (DTH) sets to be installed in tribal areas of the State.
He said that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, on his request, had announced 20,000 DTH for tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh during his visit to the State in May 2005.
Virbhadra Singh said that, the then Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni, in 2009 had informed that the Prasar Bharti had included Himachal Pradesh for distribution of 5,000 additional DTH sets in the DTH schemes of Doordarshan during 11th Five Year Plan period. State Government has not received the DTH sets as yet.
He said that the people of the tribal areas who remained deprived of watching Doordarshan programmes till now should get this facility at the earliest.
Singh said that the 20,000 DTH sets were received by the State in the year 2008 and which had been installed in lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur, Bharmour and Pangi. He said that keeping in view adverse topography and tough climatic conditions in the State, the Government of India should provide 5,000 additional DTH sets for tribal areas of the State on the analogy of such scheme of the Prasar Bharti for the North Eastern States.