Postcards voice requests for local FM channel

All India Radio had brought happy tidings to the people of Junagadh when it first announced its decision to set up an FM station in town. But after the entire infrastructure was set up,things suddenly stopped moving. No one really knows why the station,located in the city outskirts,never came to life. But what followed were protests and petitions to get it to work — all to no avail. Therefore,Junagadh-based NGO,Madhur Social Group,has now initiated a postcard agitation,getting music lovers to write to the state government,through the district collector,to do something.

The result: in the last one week itself,over 7,000 post cards have come in and are going to be dispatched. Salim Gujarati,president of the Madhur Social Group,said the response has been phenomenal. “We appealed to the citizens to write post cards to bring the FM station to life,and we erected a tent in the city centre to facilitate this. Over 10,000 people visited our tent,of which 7,691 have already joined the post card petition campaign,” he said.

Gujarati said it was unfortunate that people of Junagadh still have to petition and agitate for any new facility or development to happen. According to him,the NGO is also taking this FM agitation a step ahead. “We have started a people’s awareness drive in this issue by singing popular songs and playing the all-time hits. This attracts people and more are now coming out in support of the cause.” All the post cards,he said,will be dispatched to the district collector,urging him to take up the issue with the state government.