Official apathy denies J-K’s Vividh Bharti its Mumbai link

The programme is started only after several phone calls are made to the station director. Finding himself in a fix, without any duty officer and announcer at the studio, he has no option but to call a senior announcer from her place to get the programme on air.

Though not a new phenomenon, as casual staffers point, the channel, which was inaugurated by Chaman Lal Gupta, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, on April 14 with much fanfare, is suffering because of a acute shortage of staff.

Interestingly, at the time of inauguration of the channel, it was proclaimed that it would “play an important role in countering the Pakistani propaganda in various border districts.”

However, paucity of staff invariably results in many employees failing to make it in time and hence the `temporary recess’ till their arrival at the studio.

Not only this, many a time when the announcer fails to arrive, the duty officer in order to prevent further delay connects the station with the broadcasting station without any announcement. “Because of this, we are losing money. Unless we give our programme an identity, how can we run such a commercial service?” lamented a senior officer at the station.

When contacted, Ashok Jerath, Station Director, Radio Kashmir Jammu, agreed that many a time the programme has gone off the air, but said it was only for a short duration. Interestingly, instead of fixing the responsibility for the lapse, he shifts the blame on to the AIR authorities.

“For political mileage, they started the programme, but did not provide the requisite staff and other infrastructure to ensure its smooth functioning,” Jerath claims.

Most people feel that even after spending huge amounts of money in starting this service, the AIR has failed to serve the purpose. “If such problems persist, time is not far when people will altogether stop listening to this programme and instead opt for other stations,” says Jeetinder Singh, a resident of R S Pura.