newspaper in North east- easy empanelment provision

16:45 IST
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting Policy provides relaxed norms for empanelment of newspapers published in North-Eastern States and border areas. As per Clause 8 of the Advertisement Policy, newspapers in languages like Bodo, Garhwali, Dogri, Kashmiri, Khasi, Konkani, Maithili, Manipuri, Mizo, Nepali, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Urdu and tribal languages/dialects as certified by State Government or newspapers published in J&K, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and North Eastern States can be considered for empanelment after 6 months of regular and uninterrupted publication. Whereas, in the case of all regional and other language small & medium newspapers, the qualifying period is 18 months. Further, as per Clause 13 of the said Policy, a newspaper/journal should have a minimum paid circulation of not less than 2000 copies for being considerd eligible for empanelment, whereas, newspapers/journals in Bodo, Dogri, Garhwali, Kashmiri, Khasi, Konkani, Maithili, Manipuri, Mizo, Nepali, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Urdu and Tribal languages as certified by State Governments published all over the country and newspapers/journals published in backward, border, hilly areas or remote areas or tribal languages or those published in J&K, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and North-Eastern States need to have substantiated minimum paid circulation of only 500 copies per publishing day. 96 newspapers from North East are empanelled for release of Government advertisements through the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity.

During the current financial year an amount of Rs. 87.95 crore has been allocated for North East Special Pakage–II. An amount of Rs. 37.00 crore is to be provided as Grants in aid and an amount of Rs. 50.95 crore as loan to Prasar Bharati for improving Radio and Television facility in North East.