Rautahat, May 7

The FM radio stations of Rautahat have been allegedly misusing their authority.

Although the radios were set up with the view to catering to the local community with informational and awareness-related programmes, they have become a mouthpiece of political parties from across the border.

“They are Nepali radio stations, but it is quite surprising that they are airing advertisements related to the elections in Bihar,” lamented Pushpa Yadav of Gaur municipality-8. According to him, Kohinur, Rajdevi, Sanskriti and Rautahat FMs of the district have been airing the advertisements of various party candidates and soliciting the voters to participate in the upcoming Panchayat elections in Bihar.

“The FM stations are supposed to broadcast materials that are beneficial to the local community and not something that benefits the people living across the border,” Yadav reasoned, also ruing lack of monitoring from the concerned authorities.

The FM station operators, however, termed the broadcasts a compulsion. “As we’ve always survived on Indian advertisements given the fact that there are hardly any advertisements from the domestic market, we can’t say no to advertisements from across the border,” they said, adding, “As most of our listeners are Indians, it’s our duty to cater to them with the polls related advertisements.”