India will talk to Bangladesh for steps to ensure that Bangladeshi channels are available in India, a news report has said.
While
Bangladeshi viewers can watch a number of Indian channels, mostly
Hindi-language programmes, Bangladeshi channels are not available even
in Kolkata.
India has been continuing an unofficial ban
on allowing Bangladeshi television channels from entering their domestic
cable network.
On the other hand, most of the Indian
channels are earning significant amount of revenue, both by selling
advertisements as well as subscription to Bangladeshi entrepreneurs and
households thanks to a very liberal policy in allowing foreign
television channels.
After a meeting with West Bengal
chief minister Mamata Banarjee, union information and broadcasting
minister Ambika Soni on Friday reportedly said that Indian government
would look into the issue.
"We will speak to the Bangladesh government," the state-run Press Trust of India news agency quoted Soni as saying.
Soni had already spoken with her minister of state C M Jatua on the issue, the agency said.
Indian
prime minister Manmohan Singh during his Dhaka visit earlier this month
had said, "We have agreed to further intensify academic, cultural,
sports, and youth exchanges.
"I am aware that many
Bangladeshi citizens are disappointed when they are unable to see their
favourite local channels when they visit India," he had said in a
lecture at the Dhaka University on Sep 7.
Manmohan had
expressed his hope that commercial arrangements could be worked out so
that Indian viewers have the opportunity to listen to the 'great
contemporary exponents of Rabindra Sangeet and Baul in Bangladesh' or
see the films of a director like Tareque Masud.
"There is no rule which prevents the broadcast of Bangladeshi channels in India," he added.
The
chief ministers of Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam and Mizoram, who had been
assisting Manmohan, had assured Bangladeshi ministers of taking steps to
broadcast programmes of Bangladesh satellite television channels in
India on Sep 7, information minister Abul Kalam Azad had said.
