PM Modi inaugurates FM Transmitters in Nongstoin, Williamnagar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 91 new 100W FM Transmitters today via video conferencing. Community Radio Stations in Meghalaya’s Nongstoin and Williamnagar are among the 91 places wherein these transmitters have been inaugurated.

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said that the day marks a significant step in the expansion of FM services by All India Radio in the direction of becoming All India FM. He underlined that the beginning of 91 FM transmitters by All India Radio is like a present for 85 districts and 2 crore people of the nation.

In a way, the Prime Minister said, it provides a glimpse of the diversity and colours of India. He informed that the districts covered under the new 91 FM transmitters are aspirational districts and blocks, and congratulated All India Radio for the momentous achievement.

He also congratulated the citizens of the Northeast who will greatly benefit from this.

The Prime Minister underscored the emotional connection of his generation with radio. “For me, there is an added happiness that I have a relationship with radio as a host too”, the Prime Minister said referring to the upcoming 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat.

He said “This kind of emotional connect with the countrymen was possible only through the radio. Through this, I remained linked to the strength of the country and the collective power of the duty among the countrymen.” He elaborated on this point by giving examples of the role of the programme in initiatives like Swachh Bharat, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, and Har Ghar Tiranga which became a people’s movement through Mann Ki Baat. “Therefore, in a way, I am part of your All India Radio Team”, the Prime Minister added.

The Prime Minister underlined that the inauguration of 91 FM transmitters forwards the policies of the government that gives preference to the underprivileged who have been deprived of this facility so far. “Those who were considered to be distant will now get a chance to connect at a greater level”, the Prime Minister said.

Listing out the benefits of FM transmitters, the Prime Minister mentioned relaying important information on time, community building efforts, weather updates related to agricultural practices, information on food and vegetable prices for the farmers, discussions about the loss incurred by the use of chemicals in agriculture, pooling of advanced machinery for agriculture, informing women self-help groups about new market practices and assisting the entire community during times of a natural calamity. He also mentioned the infotainment value of the FM.

The Prime Minister said that the government is continuously working for the democratization of technology. “It is important that no Indian should feel scarcity of opportunity if India has to rise up to its full potential”, the Prime Minister said.

Making modern technology accessible and affordable is key to this. He explained this by mentioning optical fiber to all the villages and the cheapest data cost that has eased access to information. He said that this has given a new push to digital entrepreneurship in villages.

The Prime Minister emphasized that the tech revolution taking place in the country in the past few years has fabricated radio and especially FM in a new form. Noting the rise of the internet, the Prime Minister pointed out that radio has come to the fore in innovative ways through podcasts and online FM.

The Prime Minister touched upon the dimension of linguistic diversity and informed that FM transmission will take place in all the languages and especially in the regions with 27 dialects.

“This connectivity does not link just the tools of communications but it connects the people too. This is reflective of the work culture of this government”, said the Prime Minister highlighting the emphasis on social connectivity along with the promotion of physical connectivity.

“Our government is strengthening cultural connectivity and intellectual connectivity also”, the Prime Minister said.

Noting that tourism has got a boost after the rejuvenation of pilgrimages and religious places in different parts of the country, the Prime Minister said that the increasing number of people visiting tourist places is proof of increasing cultural connectivity in the country. He gave examples of museums related to tribal freedom fighters, Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Panchteerth, PM Museum and the National War Memorial and said that such initiatives have given a new dimension to intellectual and emotional connectivity in the country.

Concluding the address, the Prime Minister underlined the vision and mission of all communication channels like All India Radio and said that connectivity be it in any form, its purpose is to connect the country and its 140 crore citizens. He expressed confidence that all stakeholders will continue to move forward with this vision resulting in the strengthening of the country through continuous dialogue.

Nongstoin, Williamnagar to get new FM transmitters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate 91 FM transmitters of 100 W today at 10:30 AM via video conferencing. The inauguration will give a further boost to radio connectivity in the country.

In Meghalaya, new FM transmitters will be inaugurated at Nongstoin and Williamnagar. FM Transmitter at Community Radio Station (CRS), Nongstoin would be operating on 100.1 MHz FM Band while the one at Williamnagar would be operating on 100.9 MHz FM Band. The 100W Transmitter is expected to be heard in around 400 Sq. km area delivering a bouquet of various programmes of entertainment and education to the listeners in the town and nearby villages.

An event to celebrate these occasions is being organised in the premises of CRS Nongstoin and Williamnagar. Shri Conrad Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya will be joining these events virtually. Prominent persons of Nongstoin and Williamnagar including senior Government officers & dignitaries are likely to be physically present at Nongstoin and Williamnagar sites during the inauguration.

The government has been committed to enhance FM connectivity in the country. The 91 new 100 W FM transmitters have been installed in 84 districts across 18 States and 2 Union Territories. A special focus of this expansion has been on enhancing coverage in Aspirational Districts and in border areas. The States and UTs which are covered include Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Ladakh and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

With this expansion of AIR’s FM service, an additional 2 crore people across the country, who did-not have access to the medium, will now be covered. It will result in expansion of coverage in about 35,000 sq km area.

The Prime Minister has been a firm believer in the important role which radio plays in reaching out to the masses. To harness the unique strength of the medium to reach out to the widest possible audience, Prime Minister started Mann Ki Baat programme, which is now nearing its landmark 100th episode.

State’s power woes to improve: MeECL

The Managing Director of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeELC) Sanjay Goyal has assured that the power situation in the state, which is witnessing eight-nine hours of load-shedding, will improve in the days to come.

“Let me assure you that this situation is going to improve in the days to come,” Goyal told reporters today while responding to a query on the steps taken to lift the load shedding.

“We are expecting some more power from other sources but that might not come very soon. Maybe in the days to come and with some rainfall which we are expecting as per information, we will get production from Leshka and we will try to reduce the (hours of) load shedding,” he added.

He also appealed to the public to understand that the state is going through a tough time due to shortage of power and the corporation is making all-out efforts to address the issue.

Goyal informed that as of now there is a gap between the availability of power and the demand which is there in the state.

“The demand is roughly touching around 250 MW and the availability is roughly around 170 MW which is from our own generation as well as our entitlements from the central generating units – from the NEEPCO, NTPC and from Agartala based power plant,” he said.

“To some extent, we are trying to fulfil (the demand) from the open market corporation which we talk about like purchase of the power and some of it is since we are not able to go to that extent of the purchase of the power because of it is quite costly during the certain period of the day so we are going for the load shedding,” he added.

Goyal said load-shedding is being imposed around 8-9 hours even as he added that “we are trying to reduce in the days to come and we will see if we can procure some cheaper power from the open market.”

The Managing Director further said that shortage of water has greatly impacted the generating units of the Myntdu Leshka Hydro Electric Project as it is off-production for the last 5-6 days adding that “accordingly the water level of Umiam is also decreasing very fast because we are excessively using this water to compensate the loss of power which is there not available through the Myntdu.”

Stating that the corporation is also purchasing power to meet the demand, Goyal said, “We are even going up to Rs 8 for purchase of power whereas the average cost of billing which the regulator is allowing us is roughly Rs 4.5. Therefore, the corporation is taking that hit of around Rs 3 per unit during the peak time.”

“We are trying to see that during the evening time we are not going for load shedding and that is the time the power available in the market is at the very high-cost rate but we are doing the operation just to ensure the supply of the power,” he added.

Goyal said, “It’s not about the failure I think that is too simplistic a statement. See we have to understand one thing, we have only one project in Meghalaya which is dependent on the pondage which is the Umiam. We have a huge reservoir which takes the water all through the year and it is during this lean period we use this water right from the month of November onwards till the month of April or May till the time we get rainfall during the monsoons.”

He said the three units of Myntdu Leshka are being operated during peak monsoon and are generating 126 MW of power.

Stories of a Shillong boy Part 2: The Boy and the Giant Slide

It’s a strange feeling being a mother of a young child in these chaotic times. COVID and the lockdown changed the narrative of what being a parent means. As a mother of an only child, I still allowed him a lot of freedom, but I was monitoring him like a tigress. Anyone or anything that meant him harm was going to have to go through me. Ray—more important than anyone else just because he is my son and it’s not
just viruses and pedophiles I have to protect him from. There are bullies, bigots fanatics, stereotypes, peer pressure, and an outdated education system… this can take up the whole broadsheet. But you get what I mean. I am (or was rather) the tigress teaching her cub how to survive. This is a story of how Ray showed me that I have nothing to worry about.

2022 — 2023 proved to be a big year for us. We finally decided to travel. Nothing was going to stop us. Our first trip was to Mumbai during the monsoon which opened up his world. He saw the sea for the first time and it shook him. His face changed. No geography lesson came close to the real thing. Our second trip was to Goa. This was a family thing and he befriended the sea this time—tasting its water, challenging the waves, and contemplating swimming across to Dubai (on the condition that I (accompanied him). The sea was kind this time and Ray appreciated her generosity.

One day though we decided to take him to a waterpark. He was very excited. The moment we got there, he jumped into the paddling pool and tried the little slides. He tried to swim in one of the deeper pools and was partially successful. I was perfectly happy. I hate public poolsand the place seemed safe enough to not need me to be in the water with him. So I let go of the tigress and allowed him to run around and
have fun with little supervision. Just when I was getting comfortable, I suddenly saw him running to the giant slides. There were three giant slides in this particular park. I ran after him. When we got to the top, he looked down all three of them and chose the one he wanted to slide down. I grilled the attendant there about its safety and he was able to assure me that the worst thing that could happen was that Ray
would get stuck.

ALSO READ: Stories of a Shillong boy Part 1: Hill Boy and the Desert

It took about 10 minutes before Ray mustered up the courage to slide down one of them. He has always been the type to take risks, but calculated ones. When he finally went down one sitting on an inflated tube, he came running back immediately to do it again. Then he eyed the second slide and after carefully listening to instructions, finally decided to take the plunge and got stuck. Watching him drag

himself down to the end of the slide was probably one of the most annoying things the slippy slide attendant had to witness. I was laughing and took out my phone to take a video (For my own entertainment only. Am not sharing it with anyone).

Then he came back up for the last time—his time for the third slide. For this particular one, the attendant told him that he had to be on his tummy and slide down head first. Ray got on the sliding mat and was listening intently to the instructions and then he just said, “No.” My heart broke a little. I really wanted him to try doing something that scared him—something outside his comfort zone.

The attendant (who spoke only Hindi to Ray BTW) kept selling the third slide to him. I was also pushing him to give it a go. He got on the mat again and looked down the giant slide and again got on his feet and said, “No. I don’t want to do this.” I kept quiet. I did not want to force him, but at the same time, I really wanted him to face his fear. So I remained silent waiting for him to decide. The attendant, however, was not silent at all. He said, “Agar yeh nahi kar paoge to bohut kuch nahi kar paoge zindagi mein (if you cannot do this then you will not be
able to do a lot of things in life).”

Ray looked at him—this 40-year-old or so male attendant of the giant slide in a water park in Goa and said, “Main sirf dus saal hoon. (I’m just ten years old).”

He got off the slide and walked down to join the rest of the group. The tigress in me smiled and retreated. I just looked at the attendant apologetically and walked away quite proud that Ray took a stand and voiced it so eloquently.

(This piece has been written by Dalariti Nongpiur with illustrations by Hazel Kharkongor)