Imphal, February 05: North East Producers and Directors' Association (NETPDA), Manipur Chapter has urged the State Chief Minister for intervention into the grossly unfair policy being implemented by Prasar Bharati Broadcasting Corporation of India (PBBCI).

In a memorandum submitted to Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh today, organising secretary of NETPDA, Manipur Chapter Khoyumthem Brajesh Kumar pointed out that Government of India as a policy has been allotting special fund to produce TV programmes from the North East region by private producers catering to the needs of the region in terms of social, cultural and economic aspects.

But unlike in previous years, there has been a marked change in policy implementation by vested interests in PBBCI establishment, the memorandum added.

Elaborating on the matter, the memorandum lamented that PBBCI has negated all well meaning policies of the Government of India through a recent notification issued on December 7, 2004.The PBBCI has accorded discriminatory treatment by allocating the fund only to DDK Guwahati and PCC (NE) to the tune of 13 crores each leaving aside other Kendras of the North East including DDK Imphal besides making Hindi mandatory in fiction based programmes unlike in previous years, the statement said.

Imposing Hindi on non-Hindi speaking artists will not only destroy the dramatic flow of the story but take away the unique nuances typical to non-Hindi speaking societies, the memorandum observed, while maintaining that this is an insult to both the National language and the regional languages of the region.

Manipuri language should be accorded due respect befitting a language that is included in the 8th schedule of the Indian constitution, the memorandum demanded and added that it is our bounden duty to promote and develop our language without which our culture and tradition will have no meaning.

The memorandum also took strong exception to the included themes and topics in the notification, which are not at all relevant and related to the North East.

The themes and topics must essentially be of the North East, it noted.

The memorandum further rued that the notification allowed producers from outside the region thereby posing a serious threat to the fragile TV production industry of the region.

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