RTI reply confirms AIR's preference of English over Hindi

Reported by Subhash Chandra Agarwal in merinews.com on 27 July 2012
RTI reply confirms AIR's preference of English over Hindi

It refers to RTI response confirming preference of English over Hindi at All India Radio (AIR) in respect of its new-bulletins, even in respect of total time-duration of bulletins in a day. While total daily duration of all English news-bulletins is 3 hours 52 minutes, it is just 2 hours and 30 minutes for Hindi news-bulletins. 'Samayaki' is not given prominent time-slot just after main Hindi news-bulletin in the manner 'Spotlight' is prominently placed just after main English news-bulletin of the evening. Total duration of English and Hindi news-bulletins (other than of regional news) should be same.MAIN EVENING Hindi news-bulletin should be broadcasted at 8 pm instead of present 8.45 pm to give ‘Samayaki’ an important time-place at 8.15 pm just after the main news-bulletin in a manner ‘Spotlight’ is placed after main English news-bulletin of 9 pm.
Other programmes presented by AIR News Services Division like ‘Today in Parliament’/ ‘Sansad Sameeksha’, ‘Radio Newsreel’/ ‘Samachar Darshan’ etc can be broadcasted between 8.30 pm and 9 pm. This time-slot can be utilized to revive weekly ‘News-Sameeksha’ on Sundays to get feedback from listeners.
Morning main news-bulletins can be broadcasted at 7.45 am in Hindi and 8 am in English each to be followed by comments from newspapers. Evening news-bulletins in regional languages can be broadcasted simultaneously from different AIR stations at 7.30 and 7.45 pm. Morning bulletins in regional languages can be broadcasted at 7.30 am and 8.15 am and regional news at 7 pm in regional languages simultaneously from all AIR stations.
A special bulletin may be designed for rural areas to be broadcast simultaneously in regional languages at 7 am. At remaining clock-hours, nine 5-minutes’ bulletins each in Hindi and English can be alternately relayed instead of broadcasting both Hindi and English bulletins at a particular hour. Format and timings of AIR news-bulletins require such and other drastic changes in view of dominating visual media of TV news-channels.