A 24-hour northeast channel of Doordarshan will start operating by the end of this month, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, she said the channel would cater to the needs of all the seven northeastern states as well as Sikkim.
She also said efforts would be made to ensure more coverage of local art and culture to protect the heritage.
Referring to complaints that some cable operators in Guwahati were not distributing Doordarshan programmes, she said that in accordance with the Cable Television Networks (Regulations) Amendment Act, 2000, it was mandatory for every cable operator to re-transmit at least two Doordarshan terrestrial channels and one regional language satellite channel in prime band.
She said there was no technical problem in viewing Bengali channel from Doordarshan kendra Calcutta and Assamese channel from Doordarshan kendra Guwahati. But since they were being disseminated through different satellites, separate dish antennae were required for proper reception of these two channels.
Bureau Report