Imphal, January 21: Those people who owned a television set in their home have started to witness the afternoon, transmission of Doordarshan Kendra Imphal programmes from today onwards.

This will be one of the prestigious occasions for the people of Manipur as the land becomes a full fledged state of the country on this day way back in 1972.Inaugurating the after noon transmission of Imphal DD Kendra, Governor Ved Marwah said, the fact that the transmission is being inaugurated on Manipur's Statehood Day gives the occasion an added significance.

The state of Manipur was created in 1972 and it marked the fulfillment of the aspirations of the people who saw a very bright future ahead for the state.

Manipur has, no doubt, made considerable progress since it attained statehood, but we cannot overlook the stark reality of poverty and large-scale unemployment in the state.

Insurgency and ethnic strife amongst different communities have blemished the long history of peaceful coexistence, unity and brotherhood amongst the myriad groups inhabiting this beautiful land.

Manipur is blessed with nature's bountiful munificence consisting of abundant natural, material and manpower resources.

If we just could establish the rule of law and work together, not only the process of development will get accelerated, fruits of development would reach all parts or the state, especially the interior areas.

It was unfortunate that the gradual progression of the Kendra faced a set back when the studio complex was damaged by a major fire accident on Feb 18, 1995, which affected the studio and equipment's worth lakhs of rupees.

Despite this set-back, the Doordarshan carried on the transmission from a makeshift studio which continued upto 1999 till the original studio could be fully repaired, the governor added.

The viewers of DD's programmes are happy that from time to time whenever important events take place in the state DDK Imphal covers them.

It is also a major contributor of programmes for the 24-hour North East Satellite channels.

It is indeed gratifying to note that in spite of its limited hardware facilities and manpower, the Kendra is producing popular programmes such as tele-plays, tele-films, shumang leelas, variety programmes with themes, which concern the people, both in the valley and in the hills.

Since the visual media has a wider reach and greater impact on the minds of the people, the DDK should produce more and more tele-plays not only to entertainment and education, but also for effectively conveying he message underlying the futility of violence and the need for peaceful co-existence of ill sections to promote national integration and development of the state, the governor wished.

"This kind of afternoon transmission is the first of it's kind in North Eastern states except Guwahati DDK centre" says the deputy Director General of the North East region of Doordarshan PK Singson said.

When asked, he pointed out "there is also a provision for all the North Eastern states, but no one takes it's opportunity" adding "I do hope that DDK Imphal will take up such a challenging task successfully in the days to come".

Mention may be made here that the Doordarshan Kendra Imphal have been telecasting the local programmes only in the evening session starting from 6 pm till 8 pm since the past couple of years.

The afternoon transmission of the DDK Imphal will start from 2.30 pm till 4 pm everyday.

The two hours break that is from 4 pm till 6 pm will be filled by North East channel programs as usual.

"The newly launched afternoon transmission of the Doordarshan Kendra Imphal will be having its own local news bulletin within March", Hemanta Naorem, station engineer of the DDK Imphal told this correspondent here today.

DDK Imphal also starts telecasting Metro channel when Purno A Sangma, the former speaker of the Lok Sabha was the information and broadcasting minister few years back.

Comparing to the other North East states in telecasting several local programmes, DDK Imphal is also picking up its way day by day, another official of the kendra felt.

Regarding the existing equipment and other necessary infrastructures at the centre the station engineer further stated "The equipments which are now in hand in our kendra would be manageable for the time being, in case of any break down, we will be facing problem.

So slowly and slowly augmentation is required." The formal inauguration of the afternoon transmission of Doordarshan Kendra Imphal was held here this afternoon at the DDK Imphal complex with the Manipur Governor Ved Marwah as the chief guest.

The Deputy Director General (NER) of Doordarshan P K Singson presided over the colorful inaugural function.

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