Imphal, April 12 2010: April 12, Tuesday, 2010 will remain as a red-letter day in the history of Manipur in general, and Churachandpur district in particular.

This day will be a special day for the All India Radio too ! .

For, the All India Radio Churachandpur station will be officially inaugurated tomorrow after 10 years of completion of the construction of the station complex, and having all the necessary machineries, equipments and staffs.

State Chief Minister Okram Ibobi will inaugurate the station at a glittering function to be held on the premises of the radio station at Churachandpur tomorrow morning.

Minister of Power, Horticulture & Soil Conservation, Science & Technology, Phungzathang Tonsing, Minister of PHED, Information & Public Relations and Tourism, TN Haokip and other MLAs of assembly constituencies of Churachandpur district are expected to be present on the historic occasion.

Deputy Director General, All India Radio, North East Region-II, C Lalrosanga will also attend the function.

He has been camping in Imphal for the past three days specially for the inauguration of the Churachandpur station of AIR.

Chief Minister Ibobi will anounce the most eagerly awaited "link-language" of the AIR Churachandpur station during the inaugural function tomorrow.

It is worth mentioning here that preparations for commisioning the AIR Churachandpur station were completed way back in 2000 .

However, due to a dispute regarding which dialect would be the link-language, the commissioning of the station had remained postponed for the last almost 10 years.

Earlier, Prasar Bharti had approved Paite dialect as the link-language of the station.

But controversy arose, and commissioning of the AIR Churachandpur station could not materialise.

The matter was taken to Gauhati High Court.

The High Court later ordered that the decision on which dialect should be the link-language of the AIR Churachandpur should be taken by the Government of Manipur.

After years of procrastination, for fear of treading on communal sentiments, the Government of Manipur under the leadership of Chief Minister O Ibobi has recently taken a bold decision to commission the AIR Churachandpur station.

Most reliable sources told this newspaper that the State Cabinet recently took the decision on which dialect should be the link-language of the station.

However, due to fear of a possible communal backlash, the authority decided that it would be the best to keep the link-language as a secret till the inauguration, when the Chief Minister himself would make the historic announcement.

Sources said that the earlier dispute regarding the link-language had been solved under the initiative of Chief Minister O Ibobi.

That is how the AIR Churachandpur station is going to be inaugurated tomorrow, the sources said.

Deputy Director General, AIR NE Region-II C Lalrosanga told this newspaper that the All India Radio would go along with the decision on the link-language taken by the Government of Manipur.

Superintending Engineer of AIR Imphal, Md Kamaruddin told the Hueiyen Lanpao that the AIR Churachandpur is going to be an independent radio station, with its own station director, programme executives, staffs and all.

It's not going to be a local branch of AIR Imphal.

To start with the programmes, the AIR Churachandpur will relay the programmes of FM Rainbow of New Delhi from 4 pm to 5.30 pm.

From 5.30 pm onward, direct local programmes will be broadcast.

The daily programmes will start from 4pm and close at 9.30 pm.

The AIR Churachandpur station will cover the entire district.

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