GoM comes to rescue of Prasar Bharati

A panel appointed by the govt identified 3,452 critical posts for smooth functioning of the public broadcaster’s two wings.

Updated on: Mar 31, 2013, 22:42:20 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The government bid to restructure public broadcaster Prasar Bharati would result in filling of 3,452 posts at different levels in the next one year.

The government has agreed to national broadcaster’s suggestion to set up Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board to fill the posts lying vacant since 1997 when the corporation was set up to independently run All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan.

A Group of Ministers in 2009 had identified 3,452 critical posts to be filled up for smooth functioning of the two wings of Prasar Bharati. Now, the government has cleared hiring for 1,150 posts and the corporation expects clearance for remaining slots soon.

“We have submitted a proposal to department of expenditure for filling up remaining posts,” said a senior Prasar Bharati official, adding that the posts are at all levels including Group B and C levels.

Those already working with the public broadcaster would get some sort of preference with the corporation deciding to relax age for casual artists and assignees by the extent of approved service rendered in the relevant post.

The corporation has also decided to expedite departmental promotions for its 45,000 strong workforce through constitution of high power committees to scrutinise proposals before being referred to the government. Doordarshan has about 17,000 employees whereas and rest work for AIR.

“Efforts are also being made to reduce stagnation to the extent possible by giving in-situ promotions, ad-hoc promotions as well as current duty charge of higher posts,” the official said.

The corporation has also achieved success in financial restructuring of Prasar Bharati.

The earnings would be exempted from income tax, there would be waiver on interest on loan in perpetuity and waiver of accumulated arrears of space and spectrum charges till end of March 2011.

From next financial year, the corporation would get plan support as grant-in-aid instead of the earlier practice of loan.

The government will also provide full non-plan expenditure to meet salary and related expenses for the next five years. “These incentives would benefit Prasar Bharati to the tune of Rs 12,071 crore in the

current financial year,” the corporation said in a statement.

The government has also set up an expert committee under National Innovation Council chairperson Sam Pitroda to suggest restructuring of Prasar Bharati to improve its look and make it a people’s broadcast platform.

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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