The Times of India reported yesterday that "Community radio may get a new lease of life<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Community-radio-may-get-a-new-lease-of-life/articleshow/16483200.cms>" as the telecom ministry is likely to waive the spectrum fee for CR stations. ToI reports today<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Community-radio-under-threat-as-govt-mulls-auctioning-spectrum/articleshow/16497852.cms>, "in what could prove to be a death-blow for the fledgling community radio industry, the telecom ministry is examining whether spectrum for them should be auctioned."
Evidently, the Times is as clueless as the rest of us regarding the Telecom Ministry's intentions. I wish Mr. Sibal luck in auctioning CR spectrum in those parts of India where we are most eager to encourage community radio, like the North East, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, J&K, our island territories and rural India in general, especially those remote areas where commercial FM networks do themselves serious injury in their frantic attempts to buy radio spectrum. Sajan Community radio under threat as govt mulls auctioning spectrum<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Community-radio-under-threat-as-govt-mulls-auctioning-spectrum/articleshow/16497852.cms> Himanshi Dhawan, TNN | Sep 22, 2012 NEW DELHI: In what could prove to be the deathblow for the fledgling community radioindustry, the telecom ministry is examining whether spectrum for them should be auctioned. The ministry has, in fact, stopped giving clearances for community radio projects as a result of which 166 applications have been pending for the past nine months. The ministry's reluctance comes following the Supreme Court order in the 2G spectrum case. Sources said there was concern in the government that the auction route would effectively strangle the nascent industry that continues to struggle for stable financial resources. There are 140 community radio stations in the country, predominantly run by educational institutions, small communities, NGOs and in some cases even gram panchayats. According to sources, the wireless planning and coordination (WPC) department of the telecom ministry had stopped providing clearances to community radio applications for the last nine months. A source said, "There are 166 applications pending with WPC and the I&B ministry is unable to issue any new permission because of this." There are 267 applications pending at various stages currently. It is also learnt that the WPC wing had kept all matters relating to the use of spectrum on hold after the SC decision in the 2G case. The WPC wing is learnt to be examining whether spectrum for community radio should be auctioned. According to the I&B ministry, community radio has played an important role and has been instrumental in conveying the Indian government's development schemes and providing access to media-dark areas. Several successful experiments of mobilizing local communities for encouraging local dialects, projects and conveying government messages have been documented in recent years. However, the proposal to auction spectrum for community radio will effectively end the project's progress. However, the telecom ministry has relented and is likely to waive off spectrum fees that had been hiked from Rs 19,000 to Rs 93,000 recently. The hike in spectrum fee was met with protests from the community radio industry which even met telecom minister Kapil Sibal to register their opposition. This was followed by a letter recommending a rollback from I&B secretary U K Varma to the telecom secretary. Community radio may get a new lease of life<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Community-radio-may-get-a-new-lease-of-life/articleshow/16483200.cms> TNN | Sep 21, 2012 NEW DELHI: The telecom ministry is likely to waive off spectrum fee for community radio stations following demands for a rollback from information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry and community radio (CR) organizations. The spectrum fee is a prohibitive Rs 93,000 for a year. According to sources, the issue of the high spectrum fee was raised by I&B ministerAmbika Soni with telecom minister Kapil Sibalon Thursday pressing the point that the fee would have damaging repercussions on the government's development agenda. The telecom ministry had recently increased fee for community radio stations by five times from Rs 19,000 to Rs 93,000, sparking protests from those running CR projects. I&B secretary U K Varma had written to the telecom secretary saying that the ministry's views were not sought before the decision was taken. "This five-fold increase in spectrum fee would have a crippling impact on the growth of community radio stations in India as many organizations would find it impossible to meet this huge increase in royalty charges," the letter written to telecom secretary R Chandrashekhar had said. The ministry has so far given 370 permissions to various NGOs, Krishi Vigyan Kendra and recognized educational institutions. Around 132 CR stations are operational in the country. The high spectrum fee has been a huge discouraging factor for those CR stations that has been struggling for finances to sustain the model. Community Radio Association members, including MKSS's Aruna Roy, has also been demanding a rollback of spectrum fee.
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