MUMBAI: Prasar Bharati is strengthening its manpower for news coverage in All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan. Responding to a written query on the subject, minister of information and broadcasting and Parliamentary affairs P R Dasmunsi said in the Lok Sabha that the Prasar Bharati board had approved the proposal to position Part Time Correspondents (PTC) in all those districts of the country where regular AIR correspondents are not posted.

According to Dasmunsi, there are about 90 full time correspondents/editors and 419 PTCs posted/positioned across the country and the process of selection of PTCs in respect of remaining 150 districts headquarters is underway.

"With this, Prasar Bharati will have correspondents in all the district headquarters of the country. Doordarshan News has a network of Stringers who, along with the PTCs of AIR, provides news inputs from various districts in the country. Besides, Doordarshan regular TV correspondents/news reporters are also deployed to gather important news from time to time for inclusion in the news bulletins telecast by Doordarshan," Dasmunsi said.

Dasmunsi informed that, AIR and Doordarshan tried to cover all important news events across the country with its limited manpower and support. "Some events in far off places which are not covered due to infrastructure and manpower shortages are covered by subscribing to news agencies," he said.