In a first of its kind, to take radio to the common people, a Soochana Kendra was run from a panchayat office in Kendrapada.

Chittaranjan Behera, sarpanch of Bhagabatpur gram panchayat, said he is a great listener of radio and he wants that the people of his area get all information from it.

The Soochana Kendra was inaugurated on August 15 by district Collector Dasarathi Satapathy.

Behera has purchased 10 mike sets and transistor unit machines and amplifiers at a cost of Rs 70,000 and installed mikes in the electric poles of eight wards of Bhagabatpur village and also at Balia market.

As many as 6,000 audiences have got the opportunity now to listen to radio in his panchayat everyday, said Behera.

The technician of the control room switches on the radio at 7 am in the morning every day for providing an opportunity to the people to listen to the regional bulletin (anchalika sambad) broadcast on AIR, Cuttack and later, Odia news broadcast at 1.50 pm followed by news bulletins of AIR, Delhi at 2 pm, at 6.45 pm in evening and 7.10 pm.

Meanwhile, Sarpanch Behera plans to set up mike sets in all the villages to cover the whole panchayat under his Soochana Kendra .

Very soon, the second phase work of installing mike sets are going to be made in the remaining villages , Behera said.

One can see groups of people congregating near the electric poles fitted with the public address system to listen to the radio news bulletins  and other programmes in radio, said Manoj Kumar Rana, a youth. “When the news comes in public address system in our area, ear goes automatically to it,” said Bijayalaxmi Behera, a house wife. It is really a good job, she added.