NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry is awaiting clearance from the Planning Commission of its scheme for supporting community radio stations in the country.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari has informed the Standing Committee on Information Technology that an EFC memo has also been prepared and will be circulated to concerned Ministries as soon as the in principle clearance is received from the Commission.

This has been stated by the Minister in an action-taken report presented to Parliament last week on the 32nd Report of the Committee which deals with I&B.

The Committee had wanted the Ministry to expeditiously pursue the matter with the Planning Commission and appart from taking up the issue of adequate funds for the Scheme during the Twelfth plan with Planning Commission, efforts should also be made for full utilization of Rs 50 million allocated for the year 2012-13.

The Committee was of the strong view that lack of financial support being a major hurdle in way of Community Radio expansion, the Scheme will definitely bring good relief and encourage those applicants who refrained from applying due to financial considerations.

The Committee had observed that the Ministry had constituted a Working Group to suggest a mechanism to provide State funding to CRS. The Working Group had suggested that a corpus fund might be set up called Community Radio Support Fund of India (CRSFI) to assist organizations in setting up CRS in India. However, setting up of the corpus fund could not materialize due to Ministry of Finance Guidelines not allowing creation of fund either out of revenue or out of Government borrowing. As such, the Community Radio Movement continued to face financial constraints resulting in their slow growth.

The Committee was satisfied that during the Twelfth Five Year Plan, a Planned Scheme of “Supporting Community Movement in India” has been conceived to provide grants to CRS in the range of Rs 100,000 to Rs 1.5 million depending on the purpose for which the grant is sought.

Under this scheme a provision has been made to award grants for infrastructure/ equipment to scale the growth of new community radio stations especially in remote and rural areas that have little access to media as well as stations managed by is advantaged and marginalized communities.