March 2, 2021 9:57:32 pm
The government has announced the merger of Lok Sabha Television (LSTV) and Rajya Sabha Television (RSTV) into one ‘Sansad TV’. This is how the proceedings of Parliament came to be broadcast live to the homes of citizens.
Somnath Chatterjee’s idea
Lok Sabha TV is the older of the two: it began operating on July 24, 2006. The channel’s vision, according to its website, is to reach “live proceedings of Parliament… to every home”. This is because “the awareness of citizens about the work of Members of Parliament in the House of Parliament helps to raise awareness of the various efforts of various stakeholders in the governance process”, and “the information allows the citizens use their democratic rights diligently and be part of the democratic ecosystem, ”the website says.
LSTV was the brainchild of former Lok Sabha President Somnath Chatterjee. People familiar with the circumstances in which the channel was established said that then-Rajya Sabha chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was not really convinced by Chatterjee’s proposal. It was during his time as Shekhawat’s successor, Hamid Ansari, that the separate channel for the Upper House materialized.
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Before the canals
Before LSTV began to function as a channel, since December 20, 1989, select parliamentary procedures were televised; for example, the presidential address of the joint session that takes place on the first day of the first session of the year will be broadcast live.
On April 18, 1994, the entire process of Lok Sabha began to be filmed. And in August of that year, a Low Power Transmitter (LPT) was installed and put into operation in Parliament House to broadcast the proceedings live. Since December 1994, Question Time on both cameras has been broadcast live every other week in Doordarshan.
“It was arranged in such a way that during the television broadcast of question time from one house on Doordarshan, question time from the other house was broadcast on All India Radio,” says the Lok Sabha website.
When the DD News channel was launched, Question Hour in both Houses began broadcasting simultaneously on the DD channels.
But it was only after a decade, in December 2004, that an exclusive satellite channel was established for the live broadcast of the proceedings of both Chambers. In 2006, LSTV began broadcasting the lower house minutes live.
Launch of Rajya Sabha TV
RSTV was launched in 2011. In addition to live streaming proceedings in Rajya Sabha, it also offers analysis of parliamentary affairs and provides a platform for knowledge-based programs. RSTV has a considerable following and is among the most viewed channels in its category. When M Venkaiah Naidu became president of Rajya Sabha in 2017, RSTV had only 4.6 lakh viewers on YouTube; this number is now 5 million.
With RSTV using better technology, your budget is higher than LSTV. The Union budget allocates funds for the operation of the canals. RSTV also employs more people than LSTV (about 250 compared to LSTV’s 110).
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