The much awaited community radio service of Ranchi University (RU) – ‘Radio Kaanchi’ which was expected to go on air from February – 2018 has been wedged in clearance procedure.
As per the university’s plan, ‘Kaanchi’ community radio service was expected to get operational from February after FM bandwidth allotment from Basic and Applied Science building, Morhabadi featuring series of programmes.
According to Director -- ‘Kaanchi’ Community Radio Service, Anand Kumar Thakur only after receiving No Objection Certificate (NOC) from 12 different government organizations which include Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), All India Radio (AIR), Doordarshan (DD), Airport Authority of India (AAI), Department of Space, Department of Telecommunications, Indian Navy, Indian Railway, Indian Air-force, Joint Communication Electronics Staff, Indian Army and Police, the university will be able to initiate the community radio service.
“The guidelines for operating community radio involve approval from a few major companies- owned and governed by Government of India (GoI), all the three wings of Army as one major mandate. The process is quite tedious but we are hoping that within a month or two, Ranchi University (RU) will be able to get all required clearance from the respective companies. Until and unless, all major agencies do not give its assent, the community radio operation cannot be commenced,” Thakur added.
The concept of starting a community radio at the State-owned university was tabled in 2011 but was not pursued upon by the university for a long period. Recently, Radio ‘Kaanchi’ has been provided its own FM bandwidth--90.4 by the Centre. The university personnel had applied for Standing Advisory Committee for Frequency Allocation (SACFA) clearance online, three months back.
The Government of Jharkhand (GoJ) in January 2018 had sanctioned Rs. 40 lakh for setting up the radio station while Rs. 36 lakh was approved for meeting all other annual recurring expenses of this much awaited community radio service.
Earlier too, many attempts were made over the years to start this community radio service, however the ambitious plan never commenced in spite of roping in a private agency, Webel Media Electronics which had given the consent to supply and install all acoustically equipped electronic gadgets besides aiding the varsity in initializing community radio service.
According to the university officials, ‘Kaanchi’ community radio service will work on the model of ‘Infotainment’ and ‘Edutainment’ genres taking up pertinent issues of the region.
Being started with a purpose of giving voice to students’ community, taking up university’s major affairs, the dedicated community radio service will be also utilized for expanding and linking students with several schemes of Government of India like skill development, stand-up programmes and start up schemes.
Meanwhile, Thakur assured that as soon as the clearance process gets over, the university will be hiring trained programming personnel and will conduct a dry run before formally going on air with series of radio features catering to the requirements of students and community.