NEW DELHI: The Asian School of Media Studies owned by Marwah Studios head Sandeep Marwah, based in the film city Noida  has been given permission to establish, maintain and operate a Community Radio Station. With this, the number of CRs will increase to 59 in the country.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has signed a Grant of Permission Agreement with the School and the Letter of Intent had been issued to the organization after recommendations of the Inter Ministerial Committee and seeking requisite clearances from various Ministries.  The Community Radio Station is expected to be operational within three months as per the agreement.

The School has been interacting with not-for-profit organizations in Noida devoted to the welfare of underprivileged section of the local community. The underprivileged section of the society comprises of migrant labour working in the factories, business houses and petty shops as well as domestic help and rickshaw pullers etc. The School intends to lend valuable support to such organizations in their effort to help the deprived section of the society through radio broadcasts. CRS, will help the people in learning about pollution control in their surroundings, literacy programme in their area, general health and hygiene, health care of seniors and elders and traditional health tips.

The Ministry encourages setting up of the Community Radio Stations as CRS promises to provide an opportunity to the local communities to express themselves, and empower  women. The main aim of starting the CRS is to provide different and useful information to the people in nearby villages.

Although community radios were allowed since April 2005, the Central Government in December 2006 had liberalized the Policy on Community Radio by bringing in the civil society and voluntary organizations, agricultural universities, ICAR institutions, Krishi Vigyan Kendras etc under its ambit. The policy was liberalized to allow greater participation by the civil society on issues of development and social change. Earlier, only educational institutions were permitted to launch community radio channels.

The Government in late 2007 also announced that existing community radio operators can take advantage of the revised guidelines for new operators and get their broadcast permission extended to five years from three years.

In the new guidelines, limited advertising and announcements relating to local events, local businesses and services and employment opportunities shall be allowed. The maximum duration of such limited advertising will be restricted to Five minutes per hour of broadcast.