Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh will soon have its own Community Radio Station to be operating after a struggle of five long years. Set up in Punganur area of the district, the Community Radio Station will be named Karshaka Vani CR.

Punganur comes under Madanapalle division and has a strong community comprising of 22 panchayats and 173 villages. Commonly known as Punganur Mandala Vayalaga Rythula Samakhya (PMVRS), it is a farmers federation and is categorised under a non profit organisation which was established in 2002 and is serving its community for about 13 years.
The PMVRS is going to launch its Community Radio Station, Karshaka Vani CR, in the second week of April and people will listen to its programmes on the frequency 90.4 MHz.

The station manager of the Community Radio Station Challa Divya Teja said that the radio station will focus on issues of agriculture and allied activities. “Karshaka Vani CR is aiming to help farmers by raising their issues in the native language and solving them in the best possible way”.

Special programmes on organic farming, soil testing and its importance and livestock management are going to be broadcast in the newly formed Community Radio Station. The Community Radio Station is also planning to do radio programmes on women orientation like malnutrition of children, programme for pregnant women, on household wastage management, for women based livelihood, awareness programme on early marriage and early pregnancy issues.

PMVRS submitted their grant for setting up a Community Radio to the CR Cell at the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MoIB) in July 2010. They received the Letter of Intent (LoI) from the MoIB in June 2011 and the Grant of Permission Agreement (GOPA) was signed in 2012.

It took the organisation three long years to get the order copy of Wireless Operating License (WOL) from the Ministry of Communication & Information Technology. With Karshaka Vani  Community Radio Station going on air India will have 180 operational Community Radio Stations.