NEW DELHI: While reiterating that a comprehensive bill is being brought to amend the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1995 to ensure smoother functioning, the Government has made it clear that this was not aimed at curbing the powers of the chief executive officer.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources admitted to indiantelevision.com, however, that the move towards amending the Bill was based on the recommendations of the V K Shunglu Committee which had studied the Commonwealth Games scam relating to outsourcing the telecasts and the recommendations of the Group of Ministers in this regard.

The Government had in October planned to bring forward the amendments in the form of an Ordinance, but had decided to hold it back in view of the amendment in the Act to treat all employees in service as on 5 October 2007 as deemed employees. Furthermore, it was felt that there should be greater inter-ministerial discussion on all aspects before the comprehensive amendments are brought forward.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni during the discussion on the Prasar Bharati (Amendment) Bill in Parliament had assured that a comprehensive legislation would be forward as early as possible.

The 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.

Acting against the then CEO BS 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 last 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 2010.

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 GoM wanted an amendment in Section 11 of the Act to settle issues regarding various categories of employees in the pubcaster. I had also felt that 3452 essential posts should be filled immediately.

It wanted restoration of Section 22 to provide for income tax exemption. Loans provided by the Government should be converted into grants-in-aid, the GoM said.

There was also a proposal for a complete waiver of the accumulated arrears of space segment and spectrum charges of the pubcaster up to 31 March 2011. While All India Radio owed Rs 2.111.1 billion, Doordarshan owed Rs 10.9391 billion on account of Space segment and Spectrum Charges. (AIR and DD owe Rs 324 million and Rs 4.4728 billion as spectrum charges respectively. Similarly, DD and AIR have to pay Rs 6.4663 billion and Rs 1.7871 billion as Space Segment charges.)

However, a Parliamentary Committee had recently deplored the fact that neither the Parliamentary Committee nor the Broadcasting Council envisaged in the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990 have been constituted even 15 years after the Act came in force in 1997.

The Standing Committee for Communications and Information Technology deplored the fact that even in the amendments to the Act placed before the Group of Ministers, there is no mention of either setting up these two bodies or deleting the sections relating to them in the original Act.

The Sengupta Committee report of August 1996 and the Narayanmurthy Committee Report of 20 May 2000 had said there is no need for these provisions in the light of Standing and Consultative Committees of Parliament.

NEW DELHI: With the official term of suspended Prasar Bharati chief executive officer BS Lalli having come to an end, the three-member selection panel is expected to meet this week to select his successor for the next five years.

Under the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990, a committee headed by the Vice President, with the Chairman of the Press Council and a nominee of the President as members, has the powers to appoint the Prasar Bharati chairman or CEO.

Although no names have been disclosed, Prasar Bharati sources told indiantelevision.com that Jawahar Sircar, secretary in the culture ministry, presently heads the list of aspirants.

During the recent discussion on the Prasar Bharati (Amendment) Bill in Parliament, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni had said that delay had been because the committee had not met, but officials said that Lalli had been suspended and not removed, and therefore a full time CEO could not be appointed as he was still on the rolls.

Lalli was due to retire on 28 December with his five-year tenure getting over. He was suspended after the Shunglu Committee report indicted him for irregularities in the broadcast contract of the Commonwealth Games. A CBI probe was also launched into the matter.

I&B Additional Secretary Rajiv Takru had been functioning as acting CEO since January last year.

Sources said seeking the Presidential reference to the Supreme Court for removal of Lalli would have taken a long time and therefore it had been considered wiser to wait till his term got over.

The Ministry has already confirmed that it is in favour of changing the appointment and removal procedure of the CEO and to curtail his powers.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that while permission was needed for the Central Bureau of Investigation to proceed against Lalli, no such permission is needed for any CBI action against former Doordarshan Director General Aruna Sharma since she is no longer in service with the Union Government has she has been reverted to her home cadre.

NEW DELHI: Although the issue of treating a majority of its employees as on deemed deputation has been resolved through Parliament, the possibility of filling up vacancies in Prasar Bharati appears to have received a setback with the pubcaster refusing to accept the report of the National Productivity Council (NPC) on the subject.

A report sent by Prasar Bharati to fill essential categories of posts had been submitted by the broadcaster to the Department of Expenditure, which had returned the report asking Prasar Bharati to re-submit the proposal based on the report of the NPC.

However, Prasar Bharati had informed the Group of Ministers as early as 24 March 2011 about its disagreement with the NPC report.
 
Noting that there "seems to be no solution in sight in the near future," a Parliamentary Committee has said "the disagreement is bound to create further problems for Prasar Bharati which is already reeling under shortage of manpower."

While appreciating the administrative comments raised by the Department of Expenditure, the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology want the Department of Expenditure to realise the problems that Prasar Bharati is facing due to vacant essential posts. The Committee wants "some relief" to be given to Prasar Bharati so as to enable it to augment its staff strength.

The Committee note that against the sanctioned strength of 48,172, there are 11, 498 vacancies in various cadres as on 31 March, 2010. There are 3,452 essential categories of posts which are lying vacant in Prasar Bharati.

Meanwhile, though the Committee is ?relieved? that the regulations for all 195 cadres in Prasar Bharati have been finalised, they have still not been cleared by the Department of Personnel and the Law Ministry. After their scrutiny, these regulations would be notified.

The Committee therefore want that the matter should be vigorously followed up with the Department of Personnel and Law Ministry to ensure that these Recruitment Rules are urgently examined and thereafter notified at the earliest.

During the discussion earlier this month on the Prasar Bharati (Amendment) Bill for treating all employees who were in the pubcaster as on 5 October 2007 as on deemed deputation with full benefits of civil servants, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni that the Ministry was awaiting a reply from the Department of Personnel and Training and the Law Ministry in this regard.

Interestingly, a Parliamentary Committee which has studied the status of women employees in Prasar Bharati in 2009 and 2010 had also strongly criticised the Government for not filling posts against sanctioned strength in Prasar Bharati, noting that "the Committee is extremely unhappy that a large number of creative young women and men are denied the chance to be part of the public broadcasting service in the country", though it noticed there were legal and administrative constraints behind this state of affairs.

It was observed that there was a shortage of 44.8 per cent of the sanctioned strength in group ?A? and about 40 per cent in Group ?B? in Doordarshan, and 58.8 per cent of the posts in Group ?A? were vacant in All India Radio. As many as 4629 posts in Doordarshan and 6433 posts in All India Radio remain unfilled.

NEW DELHI: Even as the Government is working on a comprehensive bill to cure what it terms as all ills in Prasar Bharati, a Parliamentary Committee has deplored the fact that neither the Parliamentary Committee nor the Broadcasting Council envisaged in the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990 have been constituted even 15 years after the Act came in force in 2007.

The Standing Committee for Communications and Information Technology has deplored the fact that even in the amendments to the Act placed before the Group of Ministers, there is no mention of either setting up these two bodies or deleting the sections relating to them in the original Act.

The Ministry while reviewing the provisions of the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 should have taken a decision in the matter, the Committee said, exhorting it to take decision in this regard without any further delay.

The Committee in their successive Reports have been recommending the Ministry to implement the provisions contained in the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990 relating to constitution of a Parliamentary Committee and a Broadcasting Council.

The Sengupta Committee report of August 1996 and the Narayanmurthy Committee Report of 20 May 2000 had said there is no need for these provisions in the light of Standing and Consultative Committees of Parliament.

Having observed that the above provisions were never put into operation, the Committee in their Sixth Report on Demands for Grants (2010-11) had observed that there were two alternatives before the Government: either to constitute the Parliamentary Committee and Broadcasting Council as per the provisions of the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990 or to amend the Act in view of the recommendations of two Committees.

The Committee observe that proposal with regard to comprehensive amendment to The Prasar Bharati Act, 1990 was placed before the Group of Ministers in the meeting held on 24 March, 2011. As informed by the Ministry, the proposal in brief seeks to amend the present provisions with regard to composition of Prasar Bharati Board, eligibility criteria, term of office and appointing authority for the Board Members, the role of the Government, the mandate given to Prasar Bharati, issues relating to status of staff as well as action procedure and grounds for removal of Members of the Board.

Meanwhile, Prasar Bharati sources said that the Government had given up the idea of bringing these changes through an ordinance in view of the other Ordinance passed to benefit the employees.

Initially, it had been decided to bring forward an ordinance as the posts of CEO 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 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.

NEW DELHI: Even if the year 2011 is coming to a close, the unravelling of the scams surrounding the Commonwealth Games 2010 is nowhere close to coming to an end.

Even a year after the Games got over, a Parliamentary Committee "deeply concerned about the controversy" says it is clear that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry seems to be in dilemma about the actual loss on account of broadcasting rights.

What is more, the Standing Committee for Communication and Information Technology notes that neither the I&B Ministry nor Prasar Bharati were aware that SIS Live, United Kingdom, had outsourced the coverage and production to Zoom Communications and this fact came to their notice at "a later stage".

The Standing Committee was also "surprised to note the opinion given by the Law Ministry that the sub-contract was not in violation of the clause which existed between Prasar Bharati and SIS Live."

The Committee also note that "the Ministry have justified the selection process as well as the cost estimates" of the award of work for Production and Coverage facilities for the Games to SIS Live, UK, for Rs 2.46 billion. "The representative of the Ministry informed the Committee that a transparent process was followed in the award of contract and the Ministry was quite satisfied that there was no shortcoming while giving its approval."

"Although the basis for calculating the amount is not known to the Standing Committee, yet it raises a serious question mark about the reasonableness of the rate quoted by the selected firm," the Committee says.

But the Committee says that "the fact remains that the contract which SIS Live got from Prasar Bharati for Rs 2.46 billion was outsourced by the entity to Zoom Communications for Rs 1.77 billion. The High Level Committee constituted by the Government under VK Shunglu has estimated the work below Rs 1 billion."

The Standing Committee has said "the Secretary during the course of oral evidence before the Committee initially stated that the cost was excessive but subsequently justified the cost estimate as the same figure that was arrived at by a Committee constituted by the Ministry."

The Committee has urged the Government for an early decision in the matter. It has noted that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is conducting an investigation in this regard.
"The Committee desire that the alleged irregularities in the award of work for Production and Coverage facilities may be scrupulously probed by the investigating agency and the report submitted to the Government at the earliest. The recommendations of the Group of Ministers (on the Shunglu Committee report) and the findings of CBI along with the action taken by the Ministry in this regard should be communicated to the Committee."

It has taken note of the fact that the Shunglu Committee report of January 2011 was submitted to the Group of Ministers (GoM) on 24 March 2011, while also noting that Prasar Bharati CEO BS Lalli was suspended and Doordarshan Director-General Aruna Sharma repatriated to her cadre after seeking their explanations, apart from the CBI being permitted to conduct an inquiry.

Prasar Bharati realised gross revenue of Rs 604.8 million through commercial advertisements during the Games held from 3 to 14 October last year.

NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has expressed fears that the entire available reserves of Prasar Bharati would be wiped out if the trend of mounting deficits continues, resulting in immense financial stress.

The Ministry told the Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology that "after assessing the non-Plan budgetary support provided by the Government during 2009-10, 2010-11 and projections for the year 2011-12 as also 10 per cent growth in revenue during 2011-12, Prasar Bharati has estimated a deficit to the tune of Rs 8.04 billion for these three years."

According to the Ministry, however, the revenue of Prasar Bharati has not increased according to earlier projections while the cost, particularly under the salary head, has gone beyond the projections.

The Committee wants the Government to bear the gap between the working expenses and the earnings of Prasar Bharati by budgetary support till Prasar Bharati is able to generate the mandated revenue to attain self sufficiency.

At the same time, Prasar Bharati was exhorted by the Committee to take all the required initiatives to increase the revenue. Besides, all the economic measures should be taken to reduce the working expenses of Prasar Bharati.

Since Prasar Bharati is unable to bear 50 per cent of the annual expenses from its Internal Extra Budgetary Resources as recommended by the Group of Ministers, it has now proposed a new funding pattern for re-fixation of Government support to meet its financial obligations. (The GoM had earlier recommended that 50 per cent of the annual operating expenses of Prasar Bharati should be borne by Prasar Bharati from its IEBR and the remaining 50 per cent will be met from non-Plan grants-in-aid from the Government.)

While expressing serious concern over the increasing gaps between the revenue projections and revenue receipts and appreciating that Prasar Bharati is a public service broadcaster and not principally guided by commercial consideration, the Standing Committee said it was "of the firm opinion that its mandate does not restrict it from generating adequate revenue to meet its operational cost."

In fact it noted that in the Outcome Budget 2011-12, there was specific mention that All India Radio can generate revenue through Public Private Participation (PPP) during the next 10 to 15 years through schemes like sharing of Prasar Bharati infrastructure such as towers etc., building and land with private broadcasters, mobile service providers on licence basis; providing value added service such as IVRS and SMS based service to the listeners; rationalization of rate structure of the rental resources; turnkey solutions for establishing 50/100 watt community radio stations to Universities/Colleges/residential schools etc and through Data Audio Channel service.

The Committee said: ?It is inexplicable as to why Prasar Bharati has not been able to implement the above schemes which in their own admission can generate revenue through Public Private Participation for the next 10 to 15 years. The Committee are of the firm opinion that Prasar Bharati by taking the desired initiatives as mentioned in the Outcome Budget as well as by adopting suitable marketing strategies, content improvement and introduction of DTH services can reasonably enhance its revenue.?

The Committee?s examination of budgetary documents has revealed that the revenue receipts of Prasar Bharati have been gradually declining and the gap between the revenue receipts and expenditure has been steeply increasing.

As against the revenue projections of Rs 12.47 billion during 2009-10, the revenue receipts were Rs 11.76 billion and the expenditure was Rs 29.49 billion thus leaving a gap of Rs 17.73 billion.

The revenue projections for 2010-11 were Rs 15.62 billion against which the revenue receipts were Rs 9.69 billion and the expenditure was Rs 25.06 billion.