By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, MAY 26. The Minister for Public Works, Mr. Dharam Singh, has said that television will help the deprived people know about the programmes undertaken by the Government for their benefit.

He was speaking at a function organised to distribute television sets to SC/ST colonies, here on Saturday.

The minister said the Government had constituted social justice committees in city corporations and other civic bodies to prevent atrocities on Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

The Minister for Social Welfare, Mr. Kagodu Thimmappa, said the Social Welfare Department would distribute television sets to dalit colonies in unreserved Assembly constituencies also. The construction of houses for the deprived sections and the Ganga- Kalyan Scheme for irrigation of lands of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes would, however, be the focus of the department.

Mr. Thimmappa commended the scheme of the Information Department to provide journalism scholarships to SC/ST students. ``Hitherto, the field of journalism has been restricted to a few sections of society. Providing scholarships will encourage SC/ST students to take up journalism,'' he added.

The Minister of State for Information, Prof. B.K. Chandrashekar, said the department was providing TV sets from its own funds and not under the Special Component Plan. The then Congress Government launched the programme in 1992, but it was suspended in 1996 by the Janata Dal Government. In the first phase of the programme, 175 TV sets would be installed in community centres and halls in SC/ST colonies. In the second phase, 75 TV sets would be installed.

He said media centres with personal computers, laser printers and other equipment would be set up in Bidar, Belgaum, Mysore, Kolar and Udupi districts, to serve small newspapers, which were not in a position to subscribe to the services of large news agencies. These centres would be managed by unemployed SC/ST youth. Under the journalism scholarship programme, the Government would distribute four scholarships (each student would be given Rs. 1.5 lakhs) to prosecute journalism studies in institutions such as the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, and the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.

The Director of Information and Publicity, Dr. D.V.Guruprasad, spoke about the highlights of the new programmes launched by the Information Department.