TURA: The youth congress in Meghalaya has lent its support to the protest against proposed scaling down of the Doordarshan Kendra in Tura from a full-fledged station to a minor programme production centre.
The youth congress (MPYC) informed that a delegation led by its President Richard Marak paid a visit to the DDK, Tura and had a discussion with the Station Director regarding the move of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to strip down the DDK, Tura from a full-fledged transmitting station to a mere programme production centre.
“This is a landmark institution in the Garo Hills and has been giving exemplary service to the region since its establishment. The erstwhile Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting established this institution only after doing their due diligence. So, now, before making this move of stripping it down, they should also show the same diligence. They should understand that though we are in the same state, the Garo Hills is a separate entity altogether with different language, culture, etc,” stated the youth congress.
“With the shifting of the transmission centre, we will not be losing just an institution, we will be losing representation, not only of the Garos but also of all the other under-represented tribes indigenous to the region. We will also be losing the opportunities that the diverse talent of the region got to showcase through this platform. The people of Garo Hills will also be losing out on the job opportunities arising out of such an institution being present here,” it added.
“Instead of stripping down this institution, we would suggest that there is an overhauling and upgradation of this centre with provision of satellite uplinking facilities, increasing the staff strength and modernization of the existing equipment, some of which have become obsolete. We will take this up at all levels and also urge the people of Garo Hills to not let this institution of significance be taken away. We also request our representatives across party lines to also work towards keeping this here and push for its upgradation. It has been the trend of the present government at the centre to disinvest in public sector undertakings and then selling it off to their capitalist masters. They first create a negative narrative where in the PSU is seen as a white elephant, then they disinvest and then they sell it off to their capitalist masters at a throwaway price,” mentioned the MPYC in its official statement.