NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary Committee has refused to accept the statement of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry that the persons who signed documents relating to payments to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2005 had since retired.

The Public Accounts Committee headed by Dr Murli Manohar Joshi said officers responsible for the fudiciary loss of Rs 33.9 million to the government must be made accountable.

According to an earlier report of the PAC, Prasar Bharati was to pay Rs 75 million per match for 12 one-day cricket matches to the BCCI during 2005. However, it had been made clear that this was subject to a minimum playing time of seven hours per day and Prasar Bharati would pay hour-wise for days when the match was played for less than this duration and not pay any money if a match was cancelled.
 
While five matches were held for less than half the duration, an audit report had shown that Prasar Bharati had not paid for one match not played and one played for less than half the duration at Mohali.
The PAC had at that time been angered by the remark by the then Secretary in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry attributing this loss to ?an unhappily drafted agreement.?
 
In the report laid in Parliament earlier this week on the action taken pursuant to the earlier report, the Committee said it wanted to be apprised of any recoveries from BCCI or its response, and said it was not satisfied with only interim replies and wanted final replies.

Taking umbrage at the response of the Prasar Bharati and the Government that the recommendations had been taken note of for future guidance, the PAC said it wanted details of remedial action taken and also the steps taken to recover missing or untraceable documents. It also wanted responsibility to be fixed for failure to recover the missing or untraceable files.

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati, which has not had any senior-level recruitment since it came into being in September 1997, has finally advertised for filling 1166 posts for Programme Executives, Production Assistants and Duty officers.

The notice in Employment News says ?Prasar Bharti notifies Combined Recruitment for the Post of Programme Executive and Transmission Executive Examination? and the last date for applications is 19 April.

The posts will be filled after interviews by the Staff Selection Committee.

Interestingly, this figure is higher than the announcement of 1150 posts cleared by the government late last year.

In AIR, there are 1362 vacancies in Group A, 1,584 in Group B, 4863 in Group C and 2272 in group D.

In Doordarshan, 724 posts are vacant in Group A, 1140 in Group B, 2871 in Group C, and 1451 in Group D.

All India Radio and Doordarshan have total staff strength of 33,800 against a total sanctioned strength of 48,022, leaving a gap of 14222 posts.

The most critically affected areas are the Programme Wing and the News Services Division (AIR)/DD News.

The Committee for Information Technology late last year regretted that Prasar Bharati had failed to live up to the assurance given by then Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer that the Recruitment Boards for Prasar Bharati would be set up by 31 March 2011.

It is understood that the Union Public Service Commission and SSC had both refused to select for a non-Governmental organisation, thus creating a new problem for the Ministry/Prasar Bharati.

The Proposal for setting up a Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board was approved by Prasar Bharati Board on 21 July 2010 and discussed in the Ministry and a final proposal was referred to the Department of Personnel and Training on 15 February 2011. DOP&T concurred with the proposal in June 2011 and the comments of the Department of Expenditure (DOE) were also received on 28 September 2011.

The DoE had requested that a separate proposal be formulated for creation of posts for the secretariat of Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board and also requested for drafting of agreement containing terms and conditions of the members of the Board. This had been done and the proposal sent to DoE in February 2012 and then to Law Ministry.

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati is to get an allocation of Rs 53.97 billion for hardware schemes of Doordarshan and All India Radio in the 12th Plan, though these schemes are yet to be approved.

Prasar Bharati sources told indiantelevision.com that Rs 29.5 billion is for new schemes and Rs 24.47 billion for continuing ones.

But the Government has clarified that there are no immediate plans of expansion of Doordarshan coverage through new transmitters, except for setting up a few in border areas.

A total of Rs 2.42 billion was spent on 1415 Doordarshan transmitters (relay centres) up to October 2012 during 2012-13, DD sources told indiantelevision.com.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources said a total of Rs 3.71 billion had been spent in 2011-12, Rs 3.66 billion in 2011-11, and Rs 2.86 billion in 2009-10.

These centres transmit 33 satellite channels, five All India channels, 11 regional channels, 16 state networks, one international and one HD channel.

A total of 41 low power transmitters including transmitters in tribal areas are being used only for partial transmission due to staff constraints, the sources said.

A total of six proposals had been received in 1009-10 for new Doordarshan kendras and five for new transmitters. While there has been no fresh request for new kendras, requests were received in 2010-11 for one transmitters, and three in 2011-12 from state governments.

Doordarshan at present covers 92 per cent of the population in terrestrial mode spread over 81 per cent of the area. All the areas uncovered by terrestrial mode have been provided with multi-channel TV coverage through Doordarshan?s free-to-air DD Direct Plus and free connections with TV sets have been provided in some areas like the northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari has assured Parliament that the time of Urdu news from the Hyderabad Kendra of Doordarshan would be increased as the need arises.

He said that 44 Regional News Units of News Services Division, All India Radio, broadcast regional news bulletins.

In addition to this, a Regional News Unit has been set up at Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir which broadcasts regional news bulletins.

In Doordarshan, 29 Regional News Units telecast regional news from its various Kendras.

He said in reply to another supplementary question that both AIR and Doordarshan regularly transmit programmes which help the farmer in learning about various cultivation techniques and keeping him updated about the latest in this particular field.

There are 48 regional news bulletins in 18 languages, which are produced centrally from the News Service Division of AIR. In addition to this, 181 bulletins in 74 languages are produced and broadcast from the RNUs, and this covers the 22 scheduled languages.

There are 1019 news-based programmes from RNUs in 21 languages which are broadcast. And this totally amounts to 117 hours and 15 minutes of programming per week. In addition to that, you have 290 headline bulletins from FM Rainbow in 15 languages.

He accepted a suggestion to make the news as local as possible and content rich and more focussed on local imperatives.
 
Tewari said in reply to another supplementary that Prasar Bharati had been taking steps to augment infrastructure both in terms of gathering of news and dissemination of news in Doordarshan and AIR. A process has been started of digitising the various studios of Doordarshan to ensure that the quality of news which is broadcast is of the optimum level and this project will be completed by 2017. A total of 145 stations are currently being digitised.

In AIR, there are complaints which have come in that the medium wave transmission is not audible, and that, to a certain extent, is correct because over the years, the power of the transmitters have gone low because these are legacy equipment.

A total of 71 transmitters have been replaced in the 11th Plan and the power of 33 medium wave FM transmitters is being upgraded to see that broadcasting becomes better.

Prasar Bharati is also in the process of recruiting additional people and 1150 vacancies have been sanctioned.

NEW DELHI: Even as the pubcaster gears up with programmes to mark the International Women?s Day, it has admitted that women employees account for a mere 9.8 per cent in Doordarshan and 9.3 per cent in All India Radio (AIR).

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources have also told indiantelevision.com that there are no plans at present to reserve posts for women in Prasar Bharati.

The government had recently approved revival of 1150 posts in the pubcaster to meet urgent requirements.

Interestingly, there have been no fresh recruitments and AIR, which had 8462 vacancies in various categories three months earlier, now has 10081 vacancies. Doordarshan has 6186 vacant posts in the various categories.

The vacancies arose due to retirements, resignations, deaths etc since the establishment of Prasar Bharati on 15 September 1997, and there have been no fresh recruitments.

The Government has also granted approval for undertaking recruitment against Group B and C posts through the Staff Selection Commission as a one-time dispensation to fill critical posts expeditiously.

In AIR, there are 1362 vacancies in Group A, 1,584 in Group B, 4863 in Group C and 2272 in group D.

In Doordarshan, 724 posts are vacant in Group A, 1140 in Group B, 2871 in Group C, and 1451 in Group D.

Casual presenters were being booked by AIR stations on assignment basis for six to seven days

Earlier last year, a Parliamentary Committee had noted that AIR and Doordarshan have a total staff strength of 33,800 against a total sanctioned strength of 48,022, leaving a gap of 14222 posts. The most critically affected areas are the Programme Wing and the News Services Division (AIR)/DD News.

The existing strength in the Programme Wing is just 6108 out of the total sanctioned strength of 10679, leaving the gap of 4571. Similarly, in NSD/News, there are 146 vacancies in the sanctioned strength of 379 with the present strength at 255.

The Standing Committee of Parliament on Information Technology which examines issues relating to I&B also regretted that Prasar Bharati had failed to live up to the assurance given by then Prasar Bharati CEO that the Recruitment Boards for Prasar Bharati would be set up by 31 March 2011.

The Committee had been informed that the notification with regard to setting up of Recruitment Board is under inter-Ministerial consultation. The Committee was given to understand that there are still some issues to be resolved between the Ministry/Department of Expenditure and the Department of Personnel.

Since Prasar Bharati is an autonomous body albeit supported by the Government, both UPSC and SSC have refused to select for a non-Governmental organisation.

The proposal for setting up a Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board was approved by Prasar Bharati Board on 21 July 2010 and discussed in the Ministry and a final proposal was referred to the Department of Personnel and Training on 15 February 2011. DOP&T concurred with the proposal in June 2011 and the comments of the Department of Expenditure (DOE) were also received on 28 September last year. The DoE had requested that a separate proposal be formulated for creation of posts for the secretariat of Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board and also requested for drafting of agreement containing terms and conditions of the members of the Board.

This had been done and the proposal sent to DoE in February 2012 and has now been forwarded to the Law Ministry.