Date:07/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/07/stories/2006050704810800.htm

National

Parliament-run Lok Sabha channel goes on air on May 11

Special Correspondent

This will end Doordashan's monopoly over House proceedings

NEW DELHI: For the first time in the country and perhaps the world, a television channel dedicated and run by a legislature would start beaming signals from next Thursday.

The Lok Sabha channel, a brainchild of Speaker Somnath Chatterjee would telecast proceedings of the House from May 12 complete with anchor-based presentation, a new signature tune and a new logo.

This development would end the monopoly of the state-run Doordashan that enjoyed exclusive telecast rights over proceedings of both the Houses till the last session.

Precursor

Driven by Mr. Chatterjee's keenness to extend the visitors galleries of Parliament to every household in the country and bring Parliament closer to the people, the Lok Sabha channel would be a precursor to the Sansad Television Network that would be functional from the first day of the monsoon session in July, the Speaker's office said here in a statement.

The Lok Sabha channel would start on May 11 with an interview with Mr. Chatterjee and from the next day onwards, till the end of the Budget session, it would have an overview of the day's agenda to start with.

Besides the day's proceedings, lunch break would have a review of the proceedings of the first half and introduction of the agenda for the second half by anchors.

fter the House adjourns for the day, there would be a 30-minute programme "Party Stand" during which leaders of two parties would share their party's policies and priorities for 15 minutes each. Parties would get opportunity on rotation in proportion to their strength in the Lok Sabha. This would be followed by a 30-mintue bulletin of the day's proceedings by anchors.

Lectures

On May 18, viewers of the channel would have the opportunity to hear a lecture by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer on "Conflict of Parliamentary Power and Judicial Authority - the Constitutional Harmony" being delivered to Parliamentarians under the lecture series.

Unlike the previous six lectures, the live telecast of this lecture would open up series that was otherwise restricted to MPs and representatives of the media.

However, Doordarshan would continue to present the Rajya Sabha proceedings during the second half of the Budget session till the Sansad Television Network takes over completely during July this year.

Silent ads

The channel would incur an expenditure of Rs. 20 crore including Rs. 8 crore for hardware and have an annual expenditure of about Rs. 12 crore.

Besides collecting royalty, the channel plans to raise revenue by marketing the channel allowing public sector undertakings to buy space in the form of silent ads without distracting the viewers by `ad breaks' during crucial moments, officials associated with the project said.