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| Rs 2 cr go down the drain, DD Srinagar fails to operationalize ENPS | | Selected bureaucrats get coverage for doing nothing | | Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Jan 27: An amount of two crores has gone down the drain at Doordarshan Kendra (DDK) Srinagar since the Regional News Unit (RNU) of Kendra has not made operational the software that would have given a new dimension to the entire process of news collection and beaming.
Sources told Early Times that two years back a news reading software ENPS was procured from the Associated Press (AP) with a cost of around two crore rupees, but it wasn’t made operational. The bills were drawn, but the whole project was kept in bay because it would have ensured strict monitoring and quality content generation and supervision of the officials.
“The officials didn’t want the project to get kick started because it would have made them more responsible, so they just drew the bills and it was never started. The officials are always on look out to shed their responsibility and it was due to this reason that ENPS never received a green signal from the RNU of DDK Srinagar,” said sources.
The RNU DDK Srinagar is perhaps the only news unit where news readers still read the script from the paper. The news readers look like jokers reading from the paper at a time when digital media has revolutionized the broadcasting. News reading from papers ensures inflated bills for different expenses and starting of ENPS would have put a stop on all these expenses.
Electronic News Production System (ENPS) is a software application developed by the Associated Press's Broadcast Technology division for producing, editing, timing, organizing and running news broadcasts. ENPS integrates scripts, wire feeds, device control, and production information in a server/client environment.
Sources said that RNU produces at least 14 daily news bulletins in Urdu and Kashmiri languages, but rather than being a public service broadcaster and the arm of the government, the news content generated from the news unit mostly revolves around a few bureaucrats and some acquaintances of the officials posted in the newsroom.
“All this is done to take different personal favours from these bureaucrats in lieu of undue publicity on state broadcaster. If you check the bulletins of past two years, almost 95 percent bulletins carried news items of Deputy Commissioner Baramulla, who was recently transferred as Director Tourism. Irony is that whenever the DC conducts any official meeting or inspection, the officers of RNU made it sure to attribute the news items to the DC for publicity,” said sources.
Sources said that in 2018 the incumbent News Head of RNU was transferred, but he used his bureaucratic and political influences to stall the transfer. Then chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti intervened in the matter and he was retained in the News Unit.
“The RNU lacks competence and competent people to regain its lost sheen. It has become a dummy house where dummies have been kept without any utility and competence. It has resulted in degradation, corruption, extortion and nepotism in the most sensitive government run news unit of the country,” said sources.
Sources said there is a nexus between officials of RNU and district officials. The stringers of RNU are used by these officials to get coverage of their acquaintances and bureaucrats which is then used by the officials for seeking personal favours. As already reported stringers and other casuals are being ‘extorted’ to pay 20 to 30 percent of their hard earned money towards the officials of RNU. |
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