Hurriyat Conference ready for dialogue: Guv

Soon India will become largest country where every household has TV set: Javadekar

23/06/2019

SRINAGAR, Jun 22: Governor Satya Pal Malik said on Saturday the situation in the valley had vastly improved over the past year and the Hurriyat Conference was willing to enter into a dialogue with the government.
"The Hurriyat Confer-ence was not willing to talk. Ram Vilas Paswan was standing at their door (in 2016), but they were not ready to talk, Malik said at a funtion here. "Today, they are ready for talks and want to hold dialogue. There is a change in everyone."
Malik said the situation in Kashmir had improved ever since he took over as the governor last August, adding that recruitment of militants had almost stopped and stone-pelting incidents on Fridays had ended.
"I feel good that the temperature (of the situation) has come down significantly since the day I arrived here," he said.
"We do not feel good when a youth is killed, we want to bring him back. There is a lot of thought being given as to what kind of scheme is needed to bring them back," Malik said. "But when someone opens fire, the security forces will fire back. They would not present a bouquet of flowers."
The governor hinted that it was not easy to assess the situation of Kashmir while sitting elsewhere in the country even if one had served or lived in the valley for some time.
"When I visit Delhi, there are so many people who claim to be Kashmir hand. I ask them when were you in Kashmir. They say 15 years ago," he said. "Kashmir changes in 15 days, you do not know anything. If you want to know Kashmir, live there and see it."
Malik said when he came to the state he decided not to listen only to intelligence people.
"I am in touch with around 200 people and from them I have come to know about the problems. The diseases have been diagnosed, the diseases are plenty but these can be cured. The narrative can be changed, the prerequisite is that the intentions are good and sincere on both sides," he added.
Union Minister for Information and Broad-casting Prakash Javadekar Saturday said India will soon become the largest country in the world where every household has a television set.
"There is a new dream that every household will have a TV in the coming years. There are 25 crore households in India and 18 crore have a TV set. There are still seven crore households without a TV," Javadekar said here.
The Union minister was addressing a function to launch distribution of free Dish TV set top boxes in Kashmir, besides unveiling the signature tune of Doordarshan's satellite channel for Jammu and Kashmir DD Kashir. Javadekar also laun-ched the first news bulletin in Dogri that will be aired on DD Kashir on a daily basis from Saturday evening.
"Today, we are making a small beginning in which we are giving settop boxes of free Dish TV for people living in far flung areas and to poor people. However, as soon as our economy develops people will buy a TV as soon as they are able to address the six basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education and livelihood," the minister said.
He said in near future, India will be the largest nation with TV in every household. "This is my belief."
Javdekar said television has seen massive expansion over the past three decades with mushrooming of channels in late 1990s while Doordarshan being the only channel in 1970s.
"Today we have more than 700 TV channels on various fields. There was revolution in this field after private channels come up in 1992-93," he said.
The minister gave credit for the spread of TV across the country to the introduction of cable TV.
"The cable connected one home to another, then one locality to the next, and it ended up connecting the people as well. Even today, there are nine crore households where cable TV is watched," he said.
He said the cable spread was fast and due to the fact that there was no interference of the government in it.
"People used to say, and which to an extent is true, that cable spread an it became a cable revolution not despite government but because the government was not there," he added. The minister expressed happiness that nearly nine crore people were accessing TV content through DTH services.
"There are five to six major operators and they put together have 5.5 crore connections. The biggest DTH operator in the country is Doordarshan with 3.5 crore DTH connections where we are giving free Dish," he said.
Jitendra Singh, the Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office, told the gathering that free DTH connections will help in dissemination of information in border areas which are not well connected by roads or other communication means.
"People in border areas will get some relief. They will get an avenue of entertainment and the information that should reach them," Singh said.
The LokSabha MP from Udhampur said the Dogri bulletin on DD Kashir satellite channel was a long pending demand of people in Jammu.
"Steps have been taken for promotion of Kashmiri language from time to time but similar steps for Dogri were delayed. Both Kashmiri and Dogri are rich but underrated langauges," he said.
Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik, who was also present on the occasion, said the distribution of free dish connections was a massive outreach programme which will save people falling prey to fake news and false propaganda.
Malik also said efforts were on to open a multiplex in the valley in order to provide an avenue for the entertainment-starved people here.
"I regret that there is nothing to do in Kashmir after 6 pm. Cinema halls are closed for decades now, coffee-house licence will take four years to get. There is no place where you can go," Malik said at a function to launch Doordarshan's free Dish TV in Kashmir.
"The people here are so lively that on holidays they will go to fields and parks to have their lunch there. We have not been able to give them any avenue of entertainment," the governor said. "Now we are trying to set up a multiplex. There is friend who is determined to establish a multiplex (in Kashmir)."
Cinema halls in Kashmir were closed down in 1989 by militant groups at the time of the eruption of insurgency. Efforts were made to revive some of the halls in early, but had to be closed again due to grenade attacks by militants.
Malik said Doordarshan had fulfilled the need for credible news and information in a place like Kashmir where "rumours become the news".
"There are so many rumours here that it takes three days to put them to rest. They become news," he said. "So a medium that is credible, believable and with wide reach was needed. You've done that."
The governor said while there were many traditional forms of entertainment in villages, there were no such things in cities. "They are dependent on TV and radio for entertainment, and DD Kashir has addressed this problem to a large extent here," he added.

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