Broadcast ministry wants probe

After road and sports infrastructure projects, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will now investigate a deal between Prasar Bharati and UK based company SIS Live to find whether the company has been unduly favoured.

Updated on: Oct 27, 2010, 24:32:00 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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After road and sports infrastructure projects, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will now investigate a deal between Prasar Bharati and UK based company SIS Live to find whether the company has been unduly favoured.

SIS Live had bagged the Rs 246 crore contract to broadcast the 13-day games on high definition but has now been accused of tax evasion and getting the agreement altered at the last minute to make more money.

Prasar Bharati chief executive officer BS Lalli had approved the changes without taking Information and Broadcasting ministry's approval.

The controversy, which had emerged on Monday, took a new turn on Tuesday with Prasar Bharati Corporation chairperson Mrinal Pande stating that details of the Host Broadcast Management Committee (HBMC) meeting, where the changes were approved, were not shared with the board - the highest policy framing committee of the corporation.

Lalli headed the HBMC, which reduced the notice period in the termination clause from 45 to 30 days, enabling SIS Live to threaten a walk out from the contract before start of the games.

Another clause introduced, without the ministry's approval, was on liquidation, which allowed the network to claim damages for whatever investments it had made for production of the games, in case of termination of the contract.

Considering the magnitude of the discrepancies in the final agreement, the ministry on Tuesday asked CAG to look into the issue.

"The files pertaining to selection of SIS Live and other documents have been given to CAG for examination," an official said.

The ministry decision came after Lalli tried to drag Soni's name in the controversy stating that the minister had approved of the deal and the ministry was in loop on all issues related to broadcast of the games. Leave alone the ministry, even the Prasar Bharati board was not informed about the changes.

Lalli's contention fell flat with Pande stating that the finance department had objected to the deal with SIS Live and the CEO never issues any clarification on this to the board. Lalli dismissed the concerns raised by the chairperson.

There are also allegations that Prasar Bharati extended some favours to SIS Live, after it threatened to walkout, which were not covered in the contract.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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