NEW DELHI: An ordinance is expected to be promulgated shortly to make changes in the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990 following the recommendations of a Group of Ministers which examined various issues relating to the pubcaster.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has done a comprehensive review of the provisions of the Prasar Bharati Act and has recommended certain amendments to the Act, which have been approved by the Law Ministry.

Asked why these amendments could not wait for the winter session of Parliament, Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that the posts of Chief Executive Officer as well as Member (Personnel) were becoming vacant in December and October respectively, and the Government wanted to take new incumbents under new rules. 

The GoM also considered the various recommendations of the High Level Committee on the Commonwealth Games headed by V K Shunglu with regard to the pubcaster.

Acting against the then CEO B S Lalli had proved to be a long process with the Ministry approaching the President through the Prime Minister and the apex court appointing a Judge to probe the charges. The amendments also aim at simplifying this process and by instituting a three member panel comprising the Vice -President, Chairman of the Press Council of India and a nominee of the government, currently responsible for appointments of top officials ? to take action in such cases.

Inefficiency, indiscipline and misbehaviour are also sought to be added as grounds for removal of a CEO, or the DGs of All India Radio and Doordarshan, apart from the permanent members of the Prasar Bharati Board.

The GoM in particular made recommendations regarding the relationship between the Government and Prasar Bharati and the CEO and the Prasar Bharati Board.

Not merely that, but the GoM had also recommended addition of two more permanent members: Member (Technical) and Member (Marketing).

Earlier this year, the GoM also studied the recommendations of a Committee of four joint secretaries on disparity in pay scales of Prasar Bharati employees and also made some recommendations with regard to the waiver of some dues from Prasar Bharati. The Committees for studying the amendments to the Act and the pay scale anomalies had been formed by the GoM headed by P Chidambaram in June last year.

The GoM had also given its recommendations on the Prasar Bharati Board?s proposal that the Government should meet 100 per cent of the expenses on salaries and allowances of the employees and 50 per cent of operating expenses of Prasar Bharati, while the pubcaster will meet the balance 50 per cent of the operating expenses.The existing provision requires Prasar Bharati to generate at least 50 per cent of its operating expenses as commercial revenue.

The long-pending Recruitment Rules for 196 cadres of employees in Prasar Bharati were considered for forwarding to Government. Non-existence of these Rules ever since Prasar Bharati came into being in 1997 was a major reason for the huge backlog in filling up the vacancies and making vital appointments, something which has come under heavy criticism in Parliamentary Committees.

NEW DELHI: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has sought the Government?s response on the petition filed by employees? associations challenging their de-recognition by Prasar Bharati.

A bench comprising Member Judicial Meera Chhibber and Member Administration Dr A K Misra directed the government to reply by 17 October on the plea of the employees for derecognising their unions.

The three petitioners - Association of Radio and TV Engineering Employees (ARTEE), AIR and DD Technical Employees Association, and the Programme Staff Association had approached CAT after Justice S Muralidhar of the Delhi High Court earlier this week said all matters under service rules should first be heard by the Tribunal and only an appeal can come to the Court.

The Associations had last week approached the Delhi High Court challenging the office order of 8 September de-recognising all associations. The Court heard the matter for three days.

The petitioners have alleged that Prasar Bharati had not only de-recognised their associations but also transferred 500-odd employees including 24 office bearers of various associations to different parts across the country.

According to the petitioners, nine associations of employees were formally recognised by the management and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry which has been talking to their representatives on various issues.

However, the order of 8 September said no association of employees of the pubcaster is recognised and, therefore, no employee can be given preferential treatment.

It further said all employees are to be treated in a fair and transparent manner and nullified an earlier order issued by Director General of All India Radio on 18 December 2008.

The staff of All India Radio and Doordarshan protested against this move and observed a day-long dharna from 10 am to 5 pm without disrupting work on 21 September.

In addition to the Union of India, the Secretary in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Prasar Bharati Chairperson Mrinal Pande, and nominated member and officiating CEO Rajiv Takru have been named as respondents in the petition.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has referred to the Central Administrative Tribunal a petition challenging the decision of Prasar Bharati de-recognising all associations of employees.

The Court said after hearing the matter for three days that all cases under Service Rules should be heard by the Tribunal and should only come to the Court if there is an appeal.

On commencement of the hearing on 23 September, the Court had rejected a plea by counsel for the pubcaster seeking dismissal of the plea.

According to the petitioners, nine associations of employees were formally recognised by the management and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry which has been talking to their representatives on various issues.

 
However, an order issued on 8 September said no association of employees of the pubcaster is recognised and, therefore, no employee can be given preferential treatment.

It further said all employees are to be treated in a fair and transparent manner and nullified an earlier order issued by Director General of All India Radio on 18 December 2008.
The staff of All India Radio and Doordarshan protested against this move and observed a day-long dharna from 10 am to 5 pm without disrupting work on 21 September.

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati earned revenue of Rs 3.29 billion for the fiscal first-quarter ended June.

Doordarshan?s contribution was Rs 2.08 billion while All India Radio?s (AIR) net commercial revenue stood at Rs 1.11 billion. Other resources earned Rs 101.1 million for the three months ended June 2011.

Prasar Bharati?s net revenue for 2010-11 ? subject to reconciliation ? was Rs 12.76 billion, of which Rs 9.44 billion came from DD and Rs 2.57 billion from AIR as net commercial revenue. A total of Rs 746 million came from other resources.

Prasar Bharati?s net revenue in 2009-10 was Rs 11.46 billion, of which the net commercial revenue from DD and AIR was Rs 8.28 billion and Rs 2.16 billion respectively, with Rs 1.02 billion coming from other resources.

In comparison, the total revenue in 2008-09 was Rs 10.01 billion, of which DD and AIR contributed commercial revenue of Rs 7.37 billion and Rs 1.94 billion respectively. A sum of Rs 694.4 million came from other resources.

Interestingly, Prasar Bharati itself owes a total amount of Rs 13.05 billion as on 31 March to various ministries and departments on account of space segment and spectrum charges, for which waiver has been sought by the Group of Ministers on Prasar Bharati.

While Doordarshan owed Rs 10.94 billion, AIR has an outstanding of Rs 2.11 billion on account of space segment and spectrum charges.

DD and AIR owe Rs 4.47 billion and Rs 324 million as spectrum charges respectively to the WPC Wing of the Department of Telecommunications. Similarly, DD and AIR have to pay Rs 6.47 billion and Rs 1.79 billion as space segment charges to the Indian Space Research Organisation.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday commenced hearing of a petition challenging the decision of Prasar Bharati de-recognizing all associations of employees, rejecting a plea by counsel for the pubcaster seeking dismissal of the plea.

The hearing will continue on 26 September when counsel for the associations as well as those of Prasar Bharati will present their arguments.

Until now, nine associations of employees were formally recognised by the management and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry which has been talking to their representatives on various issues.

However, an order issued on 8 September said no association of employees of the pubcaster is recognised and, therefore, no employee can be given preferential treatment.

It further said all employees are to be treated in a fair and transparent manner and nullified an earlier order issued by Director General of All India Radio on 18 December 2008.

The staff of All India Radio and Doordarshan protested against this move and observed a day-long dharna from 10 am to 5 pm without disrupting work on 21 September.

NEW DELHI: Even as it denies any delay in implementation of projects, Prasar Bharati has admitted to several projects that were earmarked in the Tenth Plan but are being continued in the Eleventh Plan in both television and radio.

Prasar Bharati sources admitted that three Doordarshan projects and 47 radio stations were still to be completed, though approved in the Tenth Plan.

The sources said that a high-level committee had been constituted under the chairmanship of the chief executive officer for project monitoring and implementation to speed up the work. An Empowered Committee of Finance has also been set up to resolve all issues related to finance.

In addition, Project Monitoring Committee has been set up under the chairmanship of the Director General to strengthen the monitoring mechanism for their projects. Nodal officers have been nominated for the schemes included in the Result Framework Document. A time schedule has been drawn up for procurement and all major activities of a project has been drawn and the progress is being monitored.

In another move, the financial power of the Director General has been restored to Rs 200 million.

The three DD projects include a studio centre at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh for which the studio building has been constructed and major equipment procured. The project will be completed during the current financial year.

For the second project - a High Power Transmitter at Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh - the building has been constructed and orders placed for transmitter equipment and tower. The project will be completed in the year 2012-13.

The third project is the setting up of a very lower power transmitter at Jogindernagar in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands which will be completed in 2012.

A total of 149 radio stations had been approved for AIR in November 2007, of which 102 have been completed and work is in progress at the remaining 47 places.

In addition, new FM transmitters have been approved under the 11th Plan (130 under the digitalisation scheme and eight places under the Jammu and Kashmir Special Scheme). Of these, the set-up has been completed in only one place.

The sources admitted that the major reasons for the delays were the delay by the state in offering a suitable site, delay in completion of building because of local problems, and delay in procurement of 10 KW FM transmitters due to litigation.

At present there are 1415 DD transmitters functioning in the country (214 HPT, 812 LPT and 389 VLPT) and these are functioning satisfactorily. However, the sources admitted that delays were also caused in attending to complaints relating to unmanned VLPTs as staff had to be sent from other stations.

The country has 396 AIR transmitters (149 Medium Wave, 193 FM, and 54 Short Wave) which were functional in 252 stations.

Of the 313 cities where the Government has approved FM expansion in the Third Phase, AIR already has FM in 153 or these are in the pipeline. Of the remaining 160 cities, AIR is planning 100 Watt FM transmitters in 50 of the remaining 160 cities in the 11th Plan. In addition, the old transmitters at 34 places were being replaced by new FM transmitters.

A project is also being readied for production facilities at all the 160 cities, for approval under the 12th Plan.
An amount of Rs 1.42 billion had been sanctioned for AIR FM expansion under the Eleventh Plan.

State governments in 19 states had been asked to allocate land free of cost to AIR for setting up the AIR FM channels.