The central government has decided to provide free Doordarshan Dish TV facilities to residents living in remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir, information and broadcasting secretary Apurva Chandra announced during his recent visit to the Union Territory.
“To achieve the goal of reaching out to people living in far-flung and border areas through the platform of DD Free Dish, the Union secretary said that the government has proposed to distribute 1.5 lakh free Dish TVs in such areas where cable service is not available. The tendering for that is under process and will be completed soon,” the I&B ministry’s press release read.
Chandra highlighted the importance of ‘free of cost services’ to the public, and commended the Doordarshan Kendra in Srinagar for fulfilling its duties efficiently despite “many challenges in the past”. He added that the Kendra represents “local culture and traditions through its programmes, reaching the people with authentic information”.
Following his interaction with people who are using DD’s free dish TV services in Kangan, the ministry said “they thanked the government for providing the free service, which has become vital in developing and promoting regional languages, and providing news and entertainment via a wide range of channels”.
Chandra was accompanied by All India Radio’s principal director general of news NV Reddy, Doordarshan director general Mayank Agarwal, PIB additional director general (Srinagar) Rajinder Chaudhry, along with other state-level officers.
Doordarshan’s Free Dish TV is the only Free-to-Air Direct-to-Home (DTH) service that is owned and operated by Prasar Bharati. The service has no subscription fee and only requires a one-time investment of ₹2,000 to purchase the set-top-box and a small dish antenna with accessories.