DD officials contest claims by producers that DD Urdu runs only repeats

NEW DELHI: Although Doordarshan?s DD Urdu commenced in November 2007 and over 1000 proposals for new programmes have been submitted in two batches by around 800 producers since 2009, the channel is only beaming repeat programmes or those taken from DD Kashir for more than three years.

However, this claim by private disillusioned producers was contested by Doordarshan Deputy Director General Ashok Jailkhani, who told indiantelevision.com that DD Urdu was showing several news programmes. He also felt there was nothing wrong in taking programmes from DD Urdu.

Meanwhile, he also said it was erroneous to say that no steps had been taken on the 1069 proposals, adding that some meetings of select committees had been held and the proposals were ?under review?.

According to the producers, proposals for commissioning programmes had been invited twice, and each proposal had to be accompanied with a processing fee of Rs 25,000.

Brief proposals were invited up to 21 August 2009, wherein approximately 639 proposals were received. Presentations for the same were conducted from September 2010 to November 2010 before a duly (single) constituted committee.

The second Commissioning was notified without concluding the earlier exercise by making minor modification in the brief, but without notifying any reasons for this action.

The proposals were invited up to 1 October 2010 and up to 430 fresh proposals were submitted. The presentations for the same were conducted from 26 December 2011 to 23 February 2012 before three Committees comprising three members each.

The producers claim that the action by the public broadcaster has not only harmed the interests of Urdu, but harmed the image of the broadcaster itself.

They said each of the producers spent Rs 200,000 to Rs 5000 each and had undergone several hardships. Apart from the processing fee of Rs 25,000 for each proposal, the producers had spent money on reputed writers, directors and language experts, expenses were made during the presentations including air/rail travel, hotel and local conveyance for the experts were undertaken twice, money was paid for acquiring of rights of novels /published works; re-payment of the same to maintain the status quo so that the proposal still remains viable; and professional fees (although token) were paid to the creative team to remain with the project, apart from payments to language experts.

The channel totally banked on acquisition programmes which were invited in the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Prasar Bharti sources told Indiantelevision.com that the total outlay of Rs 2.5 billion at the rate of Rs 500 million per year had been projected for the channel during the 12th plan, which is subject to approval of the planning commission.

The formal announcement about DD Urdu came on 15 August 2006. The language channel has been on air for 24 hours from 14 November 2007. The channel?s mandate was to encapsulate heritage, culture, literature, information, education and societal issues specific to the target audience.

The theme that predominantly runs through the transmission relates to modernising educational and social outlook of the target audience, document and show comparative study of societies in the South-Asian neighbourhood to draw lines of demarcation between democratic and non-democratic social structures, popularising science, technology, IT and demystifying science, conserving literary and cultural traditions identified with Urdu, and portrayal of Urdu as one of the modern Indian languages.