NEW DELHI: Jawhar Sircar, until now secretary in the culture ministry, is to be the new chief executive officer of Prasar Bharati.

Sircar?s name was cleared after a three-member selection panel headed by Vice-President Hamid Ansari with Press Council of India chairman Justice Markanday Katju and Information and Broadcasting secretary Uday Kumar Varma as members recommended his name for the position. The appointment of the CEO is done by the President on the recommendation of the selection panel.

Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that Sircar was tipped to be the CEO.

Sircar is due to retire from his present job next month, and will take over from acting CEO Rajiv Takru, the Additional Secretary in I&B ministry and its representative on the Prasar Bharati board.

Takru had been asked to hold additional charge of CEO in January last year after the suspension of then CEO B S Lalli, following a series of corruption charges established by the Central Vigilance Commission.

However, the search for a successor could begin only after Lalli retired in December. It is learnt that a panel of 11 members was sent to the three-member committee.

Sircar belongs to the 1975 batch of Indian Administrative Service from West Bengal. After the retirement of I&B secretary Raghu Menon in September last year, Sircar had been asked to hold additional charge of this ministry in addition to the culture ministry, until the appointment of Uday Kumar Varma.

Sircar holds two post-graduate degrees in Ancient Indian History and Culture and in Sociology with Social Anthropology. He has served as additional (later special secretary) secretary and development commissioner for micro, small and medium enterprises in the centre, prior to which he held the posts of higher education secretary and principal secretary of commerce and industries in West Bengal.

Sircar has been actively associated with several cultural and academic bodies like the Asiatic Society, the Victoria Memorial, the Centre for Archaeological Studies, the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art and the Indian Anthropological Society. He took the lead in establishing the annual Kolkata Film Festival as an international event. He has published several articles and research papers on history, culture and society. In the last decade, he has focussed his research on specific aspects of popular culture, folk religion and on the development of socio-religious identities.

?NAction was taken against Lalli after the Shunglu committee report indicted him for irregularities in the broadcast contract of the Commonwealth Games. A Central Bureau of Investigation probe is underway in this connection. Meanwhile, a Supreme Court has been asked to probe the four charges of corruption established by the CVC.

The five allegations established by Central Vigilance Commission relate to contracts for management of advertisement revenue arising from the telecast of cricket matches on Doordarshan during 2007; the non-telecast by Doordarshan of T-20 cricket World Cup matches held in South Africa in September 2007; engagement of legal entities to represent Prasar Bharati; purchase of radio broadcasting rights for 13 cricket series held during 2007-09; and hiring of transport and accommodation for the conduct of the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune in 2008.

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NEW DELHI: AK Jain, the beleaguered Member (Finance) in the Prasar Bharati Board, has sought protection against his victimisation by the Board for pointing out irregularities in the functioning of the pubcaster.

Jain made this plea when he had been summoned to tender evidence in the inquiry being conducted by the Supreme Court into the functioning of former CEO BS Lalli.

The inquiry is being conducted in the Registry of the apex court which has already heard evidence of Member (Personnel) and is currently hearing the evidence being tendered by some personnel dealing with Sports. It is learnt that Jain placed documents on record to show financial and administrative irregularities on various issues.

The five allegations established by Central Vigilance Commission relate to contracts for management of advertisement revenue arising from the telecast of cricket matches on Doordarshan during 2007; the non-telecast by Doordarshan of T-20 cricket World Cup matches held in South Africa in September 2007; engagement of legal entities to represent Prasar Bharati; purchase of Radio Broadcasting Rights for 13 cricket series held during 2007-09; and hiring of transport and accommodation for the conduct of the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune in 2008.

Lalli had been suspended on 22 December 2010 following a detailed inquiry by a Supreme Court judge into financial irregularities by him.

President Pratibha Devisingh Patil gave her approval on 21 December 2010 to a reference in this regard sent by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry through the Prime Minister?s office. The President had earlier the same month accepted a reference from the Prime Minister for an inquiry against Lalli, and directed that a Supreme Court judge be appointed for this purpose.

Lalli, who became CEO in December 2006, is a 1971 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service from Uttar Pradesh. He had succeeded KS Sarma, who had completed his term in June 2006.

NEW DELHI: The report of the Central Vigilance Commission on former Prasar Bharati CEO B S Lalli should be made public before 29 February, the Central Information Commission has said in a direction to the government.

The report which gave details of alleged irregularities in awarding telecast rights and financial mismanagement among others has never been disclosed by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry saying the disclosure would impede the process of investigation.

However, the Ministry had in November 2010 disclosed the five out of seven alleged financial and administrative irregularities of which Lalli had been accused. The CVC had probed the matter on the directive of the Delhi High Court in 2009.

The five allegations established by CVC relate to contracts for management of advertisement revenue arising from the telecast of cricket matches on Doordarshan during 2007; the non-telecast by Doordarshan of T-20 cricket World Cup matches held in South Africa in September 2007; engagement of legal entities to represent Prasar Bharati; purchase of Radio Broadcasting Rights for 13 cricket series held during 2007-09; and hiring of transport and accommodation for the conduct of the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune in 2008.

The directive by the CIC relates to an RTI applicant Aseem Takyar who had sought to know from the Ministry the reports of CVC and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) against Lalli. The Ministry had said, "information sought vide your application relates to the matter which is under investigation and furnishing of information would impede the process of investigation and hence the information was denied under Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act".

The section allows withholding of information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders by a government department.

Rejecting the arguments of the Ministry, Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said, "The Respondent (Ministry) has not given any justification or reasoning how disclosing the information would impede the process of investigation."

"Denial of a citizen?s fundamental right must be justified and the mere act of continuing an investigation cannot be used to deny citizens? rights. In view of this, the Commission does not accept the denial of information under Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act," Gandhi said.

NEW DELHI: There has been no direct recruitment in the Group ?A? cadres since Prasar Bharati was set up as an autonomous corporation in 1997. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) refused to hold Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meetings between 1997 and 2002 as the pubcaster was an autonomous body.

A large number of pending court cases compounded the problem, apart from the fact that service rules did not exist for many of the posts.

A total of 3452 posts, including operation and maintenance staff, have been identified as essential posts for filling up on priority basis and the Group of Ministers has approved a proposal for filling these posts in consultation with the Finance Ministry.

Also, even 40 years after the service was established, no permanent staffer has been recruited in the senior administrative grade of the Indian Broadcasting (Programme) Service set up specifically for All India Radio and Doordarshan.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources admitted to indiantelevision.com that of the sanctioned strength of 642 in the IB(P)S, only 500 had been filled apart from 94 officers taken on ad-hoc basis in the junior time cale.

The sanctioned strengthened in the other posts is: 97 in the Junior Administrative Grade of which four have been filled, and 265 in the Senior Time Scale of which 231 are vacant.

The IB(P)S had been conceived by then Information and Broadcasting Minister V N Gadgil especially to have trained manpower in AIR and DD and reduce dependence on the Indian Information Service which continues to dominate the manpower in Prasar Bharati.

The situation is even worse in the News Services Division of AIR, which has a total regular manpower of 26 against a sanctioned strength of 104.

Among Group ?A? services in All India Radio, there has been no recruitment in the post of Announcer Grade I which has a sanction of 20 posts, none in Music composer Grade I which has a sanction for two posts, none of news reader-cum-translator Grade I which has a sanction for 20 posts, none for Deputy Director (Audience Research) against the sanction of six posts, none for Translator-cum-announcer in Indian Languages or Foreign Language in Grade I which have sanction for one and seven posts respectively.

There are 32 vacancies against 72 sanctioned posts for instrumentalist Grade I, one Director and one Joint Director (Audience Research) against two posts in each category, 42 Audience Research Officers against 54 sanctioned posts, and one Supervisor against 15 sanctioned posts.

In addition to the normal functioning of Prasar Bharati, there is a total requirement of 8018 personnel for the newly sanctioned projects in the pubcaster. The total number of persons required for Operation and Maintenance of the new posts is 2183 for AIR and 5,835 for DD.

NEW Delhi: Arun Kumar Jain, Member (Finance), has once again run into trouble with the Prasar Bharati, with its Board recommending his removal.

A meeting of the Board is understood to have agreed on forwarding this proposal to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. He has been charged with indiscipline.

However, since Jain is a member of the Indian Administrative Service in the 1977 batch from the Nagaland cadre, the proposal will have to go to the Department of Personnel and Training.

This is not the first time that Jain has run into trouble with the Board, since he has been consistently raising objections to the way finance is managed in the pubcaster.

He had been asked in March 2009 ? when B S Lalli was the chief executive officer - to go back to his parent cadre or quit the IAS. This happened after he had written a series of letters to the then CEO and other members about financial irregularities.

In June that year, the Delhi High Court stayed the Central Administrative Tribunal?s order directing Jain to either resign from IAS for absorption in the public broadcaster or revert to his parent cadre. Justice Veena Birabal passed the stay order on the petition of Jain challenging the verdict of the Tribunal.

Early last year soon after Rajiv Takru (Additional Secretary in the I&B Ministry) assumed charge after the suspension of Lalli, the Board decided to form a three-member finance committee to handle the financial matters of the pubcaster, and Jain was asked to cleaning up the internal accounts.

Following this, Jain had approached the Delhi High Court against the Board?s decision to divest him of his powers and vesting powers of CEO to the nominated member, Takru. Jain had said that the appointment of Takru, who is two years junior to Jain, was ?illegal and in contravention of the Prasar Bharati Act? as the Board has no powers to appoint a CEO.

The Court issued notice to the Board in May 2011, and the hearing is continuing, with the case coming up later this week.