Digitise history for posterity, Parliamentary panel tells Govt

New Delhi, May 13 (UNI) A Parliamentary Stanging Committee on Information Technology has expressed its great displeasure at the ''tardy pace'' of digitisation of historic speeches and record of other memorable events in the archives of the Doordarshan.

''We owe a legacy to future generation, such valuable assets should not be squanderd away,'' it told the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

''Historic speeches of prominent leaders, memorable contributions of great musicians, singers etc have immense value...The fact that some of these recordings are of immense national importance, calls for serious attention of the Prasar Bharati,'' it added.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology in its 42nd Report, tabled in the current session of Parliament, said that it had been told by the Ministry that the pace of digitisation of Doordarshan holdings was suffering due to lack of funds.

The Ministry said the required funds had been projected in the 11th Plan, but it may take three years for the funds to reach the DD Archives for procuring necesssary equipment for digitisation.

But the Standing Committee advised it not to wait for three years and make concerted efforts to obtain funds from any other source.

However, the panel expressed pleasure over the fact that the All India Radio had achieved a major goal by digitising its analogo archives of 43000 tapes collected up to November 2001 and the project was over on January 31, 2005.

Meanwhile, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi told the Lok Sabha in the current sesion that so 17 major centres of Doordarshan had been digitised and work on others was going on.

UNI