NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has no plans of any new transmitters in the current year, but will complete digitisation of 39 studios by March 2013.

Doordarshan presently covers 92 per cent population and 81 per cent area through 1415 transmitters.

The pubcaster will also complete ten earth station projects, two high power transmitter projects, 56 automode low power transmitters, and one very low power transmitter. Two studio projects were completed in 2011-12.

All areas not reached terrestrially including the north east are sought to be reached by Doordarshan?s free-to-air direct-to-home service DD Direct Plus, Prasar Bharati sources told indiantelevision.com.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology has flayed the Ministry for the under-utilisation of funds by Doordarshan.

In its explanation, the Ministry told the Committee that the Expenditure under Capital Plan of Doordarshan during 2011-12 till February 2012 was Rs 884.6 million against the revised estimates of 2011-12 of Rs 1.5751 billion and the likely expenditure up to March 2012 under Capital Plan of Doordarshan was around Rs 1.37 billion.

Delay in procurement/Supply of equipment and delay in Building/Tower works at some places were the main reasons given for the under-utilisation. The Actual Expenditure during the year 2009-10 was Rs 901.6 million and during the year 2010-11 was Rs 681 million under Capital Plan of Doordarshan.

Asked about efforts being made for full utilisation of funds and the initiatives being taken by the Ministry, it was stated that a High level Committee under the chairmanship of CEO, Prasar Bharati, has been constituted for project monitoring and implementation. This committee is regularly monitoring the progress of the schemes and taking corrective action, wherever required.

A three Member special empowered Committee on finance examines and resolves all issues related to finance.

The sanctioning power of DG has been restored to Rs 200 million.

The time schedule for procurement and all other major activities of a project have been drawn and the progress is being monitored as per the schedule.

Regular review meetings at Zonal offices and in Civil Construction Wing are being held to review the implementation of the projects.

NEW DELHI: All India Radio and Doordarshan have 30 per cent of their posts unfilled, according to a Parliamentary Committee report.

The state-owned AIR and DD 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 Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology has said that it has ?consistently been exhorting? the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to fill up the critical vacancies in DD and AIR. The Committee again exhorted the Department to settle the issues with various Ministries and fast track the recruitment rules and setting up of recruitment board.

The Committee during the course of the Study visits to various parts of the country were told about the difficulties encountered by various Regional Stations due to staff shortages. In spite of that, the Committee added, the situation had not been addressed in right earnest. The Ministry/Prasar Bharati had not been able to keep their promises made before the Committee to handle the situation, a report on the Demand for Grants for 2012-13 said.

Commitment to Committee belied

The Committee 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.

"Now, when full one year has elapsed since then, the issues have still not been settled resulting in further delay in filling up these vacancies," the Committee noted.

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.

UPSC and SSC refuse to set up recruitment boards for Prasar Bharati

UPSC and SSC have both refused to select for a non-Governmental organisation, thus creating a new problem for the Ministry/Prasar Bharati.

While deploring the situation on finalisation of recruitment rules and setting up of Recruitment Board leading from worse to worst scenario, the Committee said it "fails to understand how DD and AIR can work effectively without filling the critical vacancies."

It wanted its concerns to be adequately conveyed to the respective Ministries. Meanwhile, the Ministry should also finalise the strategy to fill the vacancies on a fast track basis so that the recruitment process commences immediately when the Recruitment Board and Recruitment Rules are in place so as to enable Prasar Bharati to fill up the vacancies within the shortest possible timeframe.

Proposal on boards pending before dept of expenditure

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 would then be sent to Law Ministry.

In its report in August last year, the Committee had urged Prasar Bharati to send a proposal for filling up 3452 essential categories of posts to the DoE, based on the report of the National Productivity Council giving full justification for such recruitment. The Ministry is now in the process of seeking cabinet approval, for which a cabinet note has already been circulated for inter-Ministerial consultation. After obtaining the approval of the Cabinet, Prasar Bharati shall undertake the process for filling up the essential category of posts.

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati continues to be in a financial precarious position as its operating expenses far outstrip revenue in the fiscal ended 31 March 2012.

The pubcaster?s revenue stands at Rs 11.83 billion for the first 10 months of the fiscal, according to data provided by Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources.

After meeting the operating expenditure of Rs 28.51 billion, its deficit stares large at Rs 16.68 billion for the fiscal till January-end (subject to reconciliation of accounts). Prasar Bharati is yet to make its results public.

Out of the total deficit, Rs 13.89 billion has been met from Internal and Extra Budgetary Resources (IEBR), I&B sources say.

In comparison, the deficit in 2010-11 had been Rs 12.37 billion, of which Rs 11.35 billion had been met through IEBR. The pubcaster had earned revenue to the tune of Rs 13.10 billion in the fiscal.

Meanwhile, the outlay in the Annual Plan (2012-13) for Prasar Bharati has been fixed at Rs 5.85 billion. The Government will provide total financial support in the form of Grant-in-aid and loan.

There will be a new scheme - Content Development and Dissemination - which is to be fully funded by IEBR of Prasar Bharati towards Revenue Plan component, Ministry sources add.

The approved budget for Prasar Bharati under Revenue Non-Plan for the financial year 2012-13 is Rs 14.62 billion. The Government has trifurcated the Revenue Non-Plan support to Prasar Bharati in the form of Grants-in-aid (Salary), Grant for creation of Capital Assets, and Grants-in-aid (General).

All India Radio gets Rs 7.60 billion while Doordarshan gets Rs 7.02 billion of this non-plan allocation, a source reveals.ke.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology has noted that the Commercial revenue earned by Doordarshan is lesser than the projections made during each year of the Eleventh Plan. It states that the growth of the revenue earned by Doordarshan has been ?very slow? during these years, noting that IEBR of Rs 50 billion at the rate of Rs 10 billion for each of the annual plans has been assumed for the Twelfth Plan.

In this direction, Rs 4 billion out of IEBR has been earmarked during the year 2012-13 for planned projects of Prasar Bharati. The share of Doordarshan in this regard is Rs 2.5 billion.

The Committee is ?surprised to find that on the one hand, specific provision has been made and exclusive outlay out of IEBR has been earmarked for planned schemes. On the other hand, the Ministry has submitted in the written replies that Prasar Bharati may not be in a position to afford the expenditure for planned schemes for IEBR.?

The Committee was also informed that according to the recommendations of the Group of Ministers on Prasar Bharati, the Government will meet expenditure for four categories: Salary & Salary related establishment expenses, expenses on Augmentation & Replacement of Capital Assets and the expenditure on the remaining items, Other Administrative Expenses, and Software & Programme related expenses.

In addition, Prasar Bharati has to supplement IEBR in all these four categories and remain in focus for budget crisis and paucity of funds.

Pending a decision of the Government on the recommendations of GoM, a specific projection out of IEBR for planned schemes has been met for the first time.

The Committee concludes that Prasar Bharati has great challenges in the coming years in regard to generating resources for the activities. The Committee ?strongly? recommends that DD should explore all the possibilities of revenue generation so as to meet the targets of projections made for planned schemes out of IEBR.

The Committee also notes that Doordarshan has to prepare for meeting the devised parameters of sharing the expenditure according to the formula suggested by GoM.

NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary Committee has urged the information and Broadcasting ministry to take speedy steps to recover the dues that content producers and media agencies owe to Doordarshan.

In its review of the I&B ministry, the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology has said that it would like to be told about the action taken against the producers and agencies for not making timely payment.

The Committee also wants to be apprised whether at any time any of the producers or agencies has been blacklisted by the pubcaster for not paying the outstanding dues.

While the complete data has not been compiled for 2011-12, the figures that are available and quoted by the Committee clearly show that content producers and agencies for Doordarshan kendras and its national channels owe Rs 4.96 billion in the fiscal ended 31 March 2011.

Out of this, Rs 3.30 billion is outstanding from producers and Rs 1.66 billion from agencies.

Expressing concern over the huge outstanding amount, the Committee has urged the Government to take urgent initiatives to recover the amount from the various producers and agencies.

According to I&B ministry sources, Doordarshan has given up as old or dead dues amounting to Rs 496.70 million from 174 agencies or production houses as on 31 March 2011.

Arbitration proceedings have begun against 84 producers to get back a sum of Rs 2.93 billion. These 84 include agencies which handled the accounts of Sagar Arts (Rs 499.43 million), Sri Adhikari Brothers (Rs 298.98 million) and Cinevista (Rs 113.70 million), among others.

Arbitration proceedings are due to begin soon against another eight agencies.

A more up-to-date outstanding amount is stated by the Committee. According to it, a total of 235 government agencies owed a sum of Rs 388.04 million as outstanding dues to Doordarshan till 31 July 2011.

Outstanding dues against 65 advertising agencies as on 31 July 2011 amounts to Rs 605.90 million.

The data is based on reports from only 17 kendras about the progress in arbitration or court proceedings.

According to sources though Prasar Bharati had held Open House sittings in Mumbai to go in for out-of-court settlement of all arbitration cases to recover dues pending with Doordarshan for almost a decade, the response had been poor.

Another Parliamentary Committee had been informed by the ministry last year that Prasar Bharati and the ministry are unable to recover the Rs 32.5 million owed to the pubcaster by the Ministries of Railways, Agriculture and Rural Development.

In its report placed in Parliament during the Budget session, the Committee on Assurances said that I&B ministry had, therefore, asked the Committee to drop the assurance given by then Minister S Jaipal Reddy in August 2005 in reply to a question that Prasar Bharati had said it would pursue the various ministries.

While Agriculture owed Rs 15 million, Railways had to Rs 10 million and Rural Development Rs 7.5 million since 2003-04.

The Committee during its questioning of I &B ministry officials found that the sum was owed on account of the campaign ?Irada Naye Bharat Ka? carried out by the pubcaster at the instance of the Prime Minister?s Office.

The reply by the ministry to the Committee in October 2010 said that the ministry and the pubcaster had both made repeated efforts to recover the amount from these ministries. Despite these efforts, it is not possible to recover the amount.

NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary Committee has criticised the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for not doing adequate preparatory work before embarking upon schemes to increase the capacity of Doordarshan?s free-to-air direct-to-home platform DD Direct Plus.

Doordarshan?s DTH platform at present has capacity of 59 Standard Definition (SD) TV channels. A plan scheme for upgradation of Doordarshan?s DTH Platform to 97 TV channels was approved by the Government in August 2010.

Prasar Bharati Board later approved further expansion of Doordarshan?s DTH platform to 150 TV channels. An additional satellite transponder was required for upgradation of DTH platform.

During the examination of the Demands for Grants 2011-12 on measures being taken by Prasar Bharati to generate revenue, the Ministry had stated that it was proposed to move towards the use of tools provided by IT to enable automation of various functions so as to bring down the manpower requirement.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology ?are concerned to see that though AIR had proposed ?E- Governance by implementing ERP system? in XI Plan for effective management of the vast infrastructure but it could not be approved and this scheme has now been proposed as a fresh scheme in XII plan at a cost of Rs 700 million.?

The Committee is not convinced with the reasons cited by the Ministry that though comments were sought from the Planning Commission, no comments were received. Later, the Planning Commission had opined that the requirements of Doordarshan may also be included in the SFC proposal.

Accordingly, requirements of Doordarshan were obtained. The total requirements of All India Radio and Doordarshan could not be met within the allocated amount of Rs 280 million during the 11th plan. Therefore, this scheme could not be put up for approval and it was decided to take it up as a fresh scheme in 12th Plan.

The Committee noted that once the scheme has been conceptualised, the reasons for under performance are untenable.

Taking a serious note of the way the Ministry has dealt with this issue, the Committee desires that the Ministry should take up the projects on priority basis and expedite approval from the Planning Commission and all corrective action may be taken so as to utilise the outlay effectively in the Twelfth Plan.

NEW DELHI: Seeing the "sad state of affairs in the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati?s functioning", a Parliamentary Committee has reiterated once again that there is need to review the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 "comprehensively" and "without any further delay".

The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology said it has been assured by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry that it is "still in the process of preparing" a separate cabinet note for the amendments suggested by the Group of Ministers to the Act.

The Committee has taken note of the failures in systemic problems, massive under-utilisation of funds, acute shortage of staff etc. and have emphasise that the various provisions of the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 need to be reviewed comprehensively keeping in view the ongoing scenario and new legislations modifications to the existing Act should be brought to Parliament without any further delay.

At the outset, the Standing Committee noted that in various reports earlier, it had consistently been recommending for organisational and financial restructuring of Prasar Bharati.

The Standing Committee has also been expressing ?serious concern? over the non-implementation of various provisions of the Act such as constitution of a Parliamentary Committee and the Broadcasting Council as per provisions in the Act.

"In spite of the continuous insistence on implementation of these provisions", the Ministry has neither constituted a Parliamentary Committee and Broadcasting Council nor these have been deleted from the Act by bringing amendments to the Act.

The Committee was informed that GoM on Prasar Bharati constituted to examine various issues pertaining to Prasar Bharati had made a number of recommendations aimed at bringing about significant increase in the degree of efficiency in the overall operation of Prasar Bharati on one hand and improving governance in Prasar Bharati on the other. It has also undertaken comprehensive review to the Act and suggested certain amendments.

As elaborated by the Secretary during the course of evidence, there is also urgent need to address the issue of relationship between Prasar Bharati and the Government and redefine it in clear-cut terms.

The Committee is separately examining the functioning of the Prasar Bharati organisation and will come out with appropriate recommendations on the subject in due course.

However, "going by the way the organisation is functioning at this juncture" and the views expressed by the Secretary and the CEO Prasar Bharati, the Committee "at this point of time would like to emphasise that comprehensive amendments to the Act are long overdue" and should be brought forward "expeditiously" after wider consultations with all concerned.

Interestingly, the Committee had made a similar recommendation in its examination of the Ministry?s budgetary demands for 2011-12 on 4 August last year and an Action Report on 27 March this year.