NEW DELHI: Following the announcement by Finance Minister P Chidambaram about a new plan scheme with an allocation of Rs 100 crore to promote community radio stations, the Government has issued detailed guidelines for the scheme.
The new scheme “Supporting Community Radio Movement in India” for providing financial assistance to Community Radio Stations under the component “Community Radio Support Scheme” (CRSS) under the 12th Plan is aimed at strengthen new and existing CR Stations with resources, capacity and technology so that they could provide access and voice to marginalized communities; promoting growth of CRS, especially in remote and rural areas, so that people living in these areas could have access to a meaningful medium of broadcast; and promoting socio-economic and cultural development of communities as CRS is a powerful medium for social mobilization.
A total of just 161 community radio stations were operational by the government’s own admission as on 1 December last year. A total of 223 applications were under process and 616 applications had been rejected.
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A total of 1277 applications had been received by the government since 2004 till 1 December. A total of 438 letters of intent had been issued and and 194 grant of permission agreements had been signed.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry while issuing the Guidelines noted that the problem of lack of financial resources for CRS exists all over the world.
The Ministry said in spite of several efforts to streamline the permission process, the growth of Community Radios in the country has ‘somewhat remained moderate’. The number of operational CRS in India at present is ‘rather disappointing keeping in views its size and population’.
One reason for the slow growth in this sector can be attributed to lack of resources with Non-Government Organizations to meet the capital cost of setting up CRS and hand holding. Their capacity to mobilise resources is extremely limited. It is perhaps time to think of a mechanism to channelise financial assistance to genuine grass roots organisations to enable them set up CRS.
Community Radios in India were started after the first policy for Community Radios was approved in the year 2002. This policy allowed only Educational Institutions to set up Community Radios. This policy was broad-based in 2006 when gross-roots organizations like NGOs and other Not-for-Profit organizations were also allowed to set up Community Radios in India. This policy brought a paradigm shift in the Community Radio Movement in the country.
The Ministry therefore said there is a need to provide greater push to this Scheme as Community Radios have the potential to strengthen people’s perception in the development programmes. In a country like India, where every State has its own language and cultural identity, Community Radios also act as a repository of local folks, music and cultural heritage.
So far, only UNICEF and UNESCO had supported selected organizations in the recent past to meet the capital cost of the equipment and the machinery. Funds have also been provided to meet the running expenditure. However most of this funding has been in the form of pilots and demonstration.
A basic set up of community radio station may cost around Rs.15 lakh. The maximum grant size in the current Financial year will be 50 per cent of the total estimated expenditure, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 7.50 lakh. The remaining amount will have to be contributed by the grantee, for which the grantee will submit supporting documents.
The Scheme will support 100 new CRS and 30 existing operational community radio stations each year. Under the scheme, a total of at least 650 grants are likely to be made over the 12th Plan Period (2012-2017).
Grants under CRSS would broadly cover:
a) Equipment Acquisition: – capital expenditure for purchase of equipments/up gradation of equipments.
b) Training Support: – In order to access training processes and facilities, to build community capacity to produce content and to manage the CR process on their own.
c) Emergency Grants: – To cover damages and repairs faced by community radio stations in extreme emergency situations like natural calamities, lightning, cyclone, etc.
d) Replacement of existing equipment/ upgradation/ expansion as a one-time cost for existing (on-air) stations.
e) Innovative grants: In order to support the community radio sector and encourage innovation in CR technology, content development, research, evaluation methodology development and training processes etc.
A technical committee constituted by the Ministry has shortlisted equipment essential for operating a CRS. This list has been made in such a way that it will generate a multi-vender response. The committee has also finalized specifications/benchmarks of each item on the short list. This will be the benchmark for equipment to be purchased by CRS under this scheme. Funding will be provided only for equipment as per specifications laid down by the Ministry. List of equipment shortlisted and specification/benchmarks thereof are at Annexure. The Technical Committee would review the list of equipment at periodical intervals.
Assistance to Community Radio Stations will be provided by the Ministry to:
i) An organisation which is in receipt of Letter of Intent (LOI) from the Ministry for setting up of Community Radio Station in India, under the extant Guidelines, amended from time to time, is eligible to apply.
ii) It will be mandatory that NGOs applying for grant should be registered in the NGO Portal and have obtained unique ID Number.
Priority will be given to:
i) Applicants from North-East Region.
ii) Applicants who have not received any grant in the past, or are not presently receiving Government grants/public funds for the setting up and/or running of the Community Radio Station. If an applicant has access to or has availed public funds for the same purpose (CR), then the applicant automatically gets deprioritised.
iii) Applicants from backward districts (Refer BRGF List)
iv) Applicants that demonstrate strong community participation
v) Applicants that demonstrate strong community ownership
vi) Applicants that strongly represent the voice of marginalised communities
All grantees which have got assistance under the equipment acquisition and replacement will need to go through a Cool-Off Period of 6 years before they can reapply to CRSS in the same category. However such grantees can apply for other categories
Applications for grants will be invited through newspaper advertisements in leading national and regional publications providing information regarding Grant Application procedures.
The eligible applicants will be required to apply in the prescribed format with requisite documents and Detailed Project Report (DPR).
The application and the DPR will be scrutinised by Programme Management Unit (PMU) within 30 days of receipt of application. The applications complete in all respect will be placed before already existing screening committee constituted by the Ministry for the purpose. The Committee shall examine the DPR with respect to the bench marks laid out by the Ministry. Recommendations of the Screening Committee shall be placed before the Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC).
IMC will examine the proposal and on being satisfied that it is a fit case for receiving the Government Grant, an ‘in principle’ Sanction Letter for grant up to 50 per cent of the Project cost, subject to maximum of Rs.7.5 lakh, will be issued to the applicant organization.
The applicant organization, thereafter, will have to set up the Community Radio Station and make it fully operational within six months from the date of receipt of the Sanction letter from the Ministry. The proof of operationalisation will be the availability of Wireless Operating License (WOL) issued by the WPC Wing of Department of Telecommunications, along with record of programmes by the Community Radio Station at least for a period of three months.
After operating CRS for three months, the applicant organisation, which has been issued Sanction Letter for grant, will submit a Claim Form to receive the grant within the stipulated period, along with the following documents:
An Affidavit to the effect that machinery and equipment have been set up and that CRS is fully operational for the last three months. Technical specifications of the machinery and equipment supplied by the vendors on site and a Certificate to the effect that the machinery and equipment conform to the standard/bench mark prescribed by the Ministry.
Once the Claim Form is received with the necessary documents, the Ministry will undertake on the spot inspection of the facility by a Technical Team which will visit the CRS which has been sanctioned, and verify the specifications and quality of machinery and equipment, warranty period and price paid by the applicant organization for each of the equipment. The Team will submit its report to the Ministry which will verify the Report and after satisfaction, up to 50% of the grant, subject to a maximum of Rs.7.5 lakh will be released directly to the Bank Account of the applicant organization.
Community Radio Stations operationalised before the approval of the scheme would be eligible to apply for grant for replacement of faulty/damaged equipment, up gradation and expansion. Grant will be provided only for the equipment which adhere to the specifications and benchmark listed by the Ministry. There will be no retrospective grant. Also, no grant will be provided for repairing of the equipment.
The applicant organisation will be required to submit a Detailed Project Report giving a comprehensive account of the equipment they wish to purchase according to specifications prescribed by the Ministry. The applicant will also need to detail the requirement of fund along with the equipment specifications and will have to provide details about the source of his contribution towards the cost of the equipment.
The Ministry will engage reputed Institutes in various parts of the country to provide specialised training to CR operators/station managers/content producers/ technicians and community representatives. The Ministry will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with each institution to detail terms/ schedule/duration etc of the training modules. Community Radios would be asked to send people to these institutes for training. The cost of training will be completely and fully borne by the Ministry 11.5 Payments relating to the cost of training would be made to the institutions directly by the Ministry as per MOU.
Emergency Grants will be provided to CRS in extreme emergency situations only like natural calamities, lightning, cyclone, etc. to cover damages caused to CR Stations. The Emergency Grants will be only for equipment replacement. The Screening Committee will examine the proposals received and will decide the grant size after field visit, subject to a maximum of Rs. 5 lakh.
Innovative grants will be provided in order to support the community radio sector and encourage innovation in CR technology, content development, research, evaluation methodology development and training processes etc. 13.2 These grants will be announced from time to time on the CRSS website and in leading publications nationwide, and will be made on a competitive application basis to individuals/organisations working in fields or sectors related to community radio (for instance, technology organisation developing new low cost CR equipment or an initiative to develop content sharing processes and mechanisms etc). The grant size will be decided by the Screening Committee, subject to the approval of the Inter-Ministerial Committee.
