Radio Sharda, Jammu and Kashmir, a community radio service operating from Jammu won two awards at the National Awards for Community Radio, with its operator saying that programmes are being transmitted uninterrupted there, but people in the valley have no access to it currently.
Ramesh Hingloo, the founder of the radio service, said that it was started 10 years ago to preserve the culture of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits. It is available online and is popular in the valley, as well as in 104 other countries, he said.
"People in Kashmir valley listen to the transmissions as well. We have many listeners there, specially since we have it online. We talk of local issues and problems, and primarily promote the culture of the displaced people. Those who get uprooted need to be connected to their roots and our service helps them with that," he said, adding the transmission has not been ever restricted "even for half-hour" in the past decade.
He said programmes are being transmitted uninterrupted in Jammu, but people in the valley have no access to it currently.
Hingloo claimed that many Kashmiris who stay away from home have contacted the radio station to get information about their kin in the valley after the abrogation of provisions of Article 370, and they have tried to contact police officials there to help them out.
"Since all communication is down there, we cannot help them directly, but we get such calls. Even after the Kashmir floods people had got in touch with us for information," he said.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar presented the National Awards for Community Radio for 2018 and 2019 at a function here.
Radio Sharda won the second prize in two categories for the year 2018 -- for its programme Wangegvoor in the thematic category and second prize for its programme Peindh Te Purran in the promoting local culture category.
Javadekar congratulated all the award winners and commended the stellar role being played by all the representatives of community radio stations from all across the country.
He said that the aim of the government is to increase the number of community radio stations from 262 to 500 to give further fillip to the community radio movement in the country.
Stressing that radio is the most powerful and reliable medium of communication, he highlighted the success of Mann ki Baat which has now become 'Desh ki Baat' and everyone's 'Dil ki Baat'.
He urged the participants of the event to share their experiences and come up with suggestions for bettering content and quality of programmes. He also requested them to write to him with suggestions for improvement.
A compendium of all the programmes running on community radio stations all across the country was also released during the event.
Friends Radio, Tripura won the first prize for its programme health and women in the thematic category for 2019 while second prize was won by Salaam Namaste, Uttar Pradesh, for its Programme Salaam Shakti.
Awards were given away in five categories.
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