1.5 Lakh Free Dish to be Distributed in Border Areas and Far Flung Areas

Ganderbal: Government of India will provide free Doordarshan Dish TV facilities to residents of far flung areas of Jammu and Kashmir. This was stated by Secretary Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Sh. Apurva Chandra during a visit to Kangan Sub Division of J&K to assess outreach of DD Free Dish in the area.

To achieve the goal of reaching out to people living in far-flung and border areas through the platform of DD Free Dish, Union Secretary said that the Government has proposed to distribute 1.5 lakh free Dish in such areas where cable service is not available for which tendering is under process and will be completed soon.

During the visit, Union Secretary was accompanied by Principal Director General News, All India Radio, N. V. Reddy, Director General, Doordarshan, Mayank Agrawal, Additional Director General, Press Information Bureau Srinagar, Rajinder Chaudhry, Deputy Director News DDK Srinagar, Qazi Salman, and the officers of the district administration.

Sh. Chandra underlined the importance of the free of cost service to the masses. He said that the service is being distributed in far flung areas of Kashmir and its ambit will be increased in the times to come. The Union Secretary complemented Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar for performing its duties efficiently despite many challenges in the past. He said that the Kendra is aptly representing the local culture and traditions through its programmes reaching the people with authentic information.

The Union I&B Secretary also interacted with the people using DD Free Dish at Margund Kangan who shared their feedback about the programmes available on various channels especially DD Kashir. They thanked the government for providing free Dish Service which has become vital in developing and promoting regional languages and providing news and entertainment via a wide range of channels.

One of the beneficiaries, Abdul Rashid Sheikh while appreciating the DD said that the scheme will help in keeping the people updated about different developmental initiatives and also informed about the local as well as national events of importance.

DD Free Dish is the only Free-to-Air Direct-to-Home (DTH) service provided by Doordarshan. The service is owned and operated by Public Service Broadcaster Prasar Bharati. It was launched in December, 2004. The service has no monthly subscription fee from the viewers and is very affordable as it requires only a small one time investment of about Rs. 2000/- for purchasing of Set-to-Box (STB) and small sized Dish Antenna with accessories. The unique free to air model has made DD Free Dish the largest DTH platform.