Ire at Tagore town Doordarshan’s transmission unit closure bid

State textiles minister and Bolpur MLA Chandranath Sinha has written to Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Singh Thakur requesting him to revoke the decision to shut the Santiniketan Doordarshan Kendra’s transmission unit.

Set up by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1984, it telecasts programmes on special occasions and one every Sunday on Santiniketan’s many facets.

Sinha said he was “forced” to write to Thakur after an association of engineering employees from the central government broadcasting unit wrote to him last week fearing job cuts.

“It is a clear bid by the BJP to shut down the unit because it telecasts the cultural aspects of Santiniketan and Rabindranath Tagore.