Thursday, May 5 2005 15:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Prasar Bharati has decided to shift some of the regional language news units along with staff from Delhi to concerned regional stations of All India Radio to overcome operational difficulties; the Lok Sabha was informed today (May 5, 2005).

The decision was taken in view of lack of sufficient regional language news editors for supervision of translation and large portion of translation work being done by casual workers due to shortage of permanent employees, which has caused problems of diction and accent, Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy said.

He was making a statement in response to a calling attention notice by Sarbananda Sonowal.

Reddy said that three units had already been shifted, Telugu unit to Hyderabad with effect from 1.4.2005, Kannada unit to Bangalore, Dharwad and Sindhi unit to Ahmedabad, both with effect from 27.4.2005.

At present 17 national level regional language bulletins are being prepared, edited, translated and read out from Delhi, he said.

He said that the decision to shift the bulletins would not go against the role of the All India Radio to integrate the whole nation.