AIR to shut down national channel, regional training academies in 5 cities to cut costs

New Delhi, Jan 4: Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has decided to close down All India Radio’s national channel and its regional training academies in five cities as part of “cost-cutting measures” and to “rationalise” services.

        The programme, technical, ministerial and other staff posted at National Channel in Todapur and Nagpur etc, apart from those working at Regional Academies of Broadcasting and Multimedia (RABMs) in five cities, may be posted as per the requirement of the organisation, said the order issued by the Directorate General, All India Radio (AIR).

         In order to “rationalise AIR services and keeping in view of the cost-cutting measures”, it has been decided by Prasar Bharati and communicated to DG AIR on December 24, 2018, to close down the national channel of AIR and RABMs located at Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Shillong and Thiruvananthapuram with immediate  effect, it said.

        The order, dated January 3, stated that the programmes of archival value maintained by national channel should be sent to the central archives in Delhi for digitisation and preservation for posterity.

         The national channel, which broadcasts from 6PM to 6 AM, came up in 1987 and played an important role in keeping people abreast with national issues, an AIR source said.

        “National channel has a huge repository of programmes and the personnel will now be redeployed,” the source said.

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