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.

NEW DELHI: The Bill for amending the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 to treating all government officers and employees recruited by All India Radio or Doordarshan as on 5 October 2007 to be on ?deemed deputation? with effect from April 2000 till the time of their retirement received Parliamentary approval with the Lok Sabha passing it.

The Bill, which has already been cleared by the Rajya Sabha, will now go to the President for her assent and will then be notified as an Act.

The Bill for amending Section 11 and some other provisions of the Act was moved by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting CM Jatua was passed unanimously, though members were agitated over the slow progress in filling vacant posts and the failure to recognise unions and associations of employees.

The Bill will affect a majority of the 38,000 employees in Prasar Bharati by assuring them of their pension and other benefits. Until 2000, the employees had been deemed as full government employees and their status was changed to ?deemed employees? from 1 April 2000.

Earlier this month, the Rajya Sabha had also passed three official amendments in the Bill following acceptance of the action taken on the recommendations made in the Eighteenth Report on "Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill, 2010" of the Standing Committee on Information Technology.

(Subsequently, Rule 37A of the CCS Pension Rules will also be amended through gazette notification.)
The Bill had been introduced in September, 20 months after the Group of Ministers on Prasar Bharati had decided in January last year, ending an uncertainty that had prevailed for a decade.

Intervening in the discussion, I&B Minister Ambika Soni assured the House that a comprehensive bill to cure all that was wrong with Prasar Bharati would be brought shortly.

She said any association of employees desirous of recognition had to fulfill the criteria laid by the Department of Personnel and Training in its rules of 1993. She said there were over 21 associations for the approximately 122 categories of employees but none had applied under the 1993 Rules for recognition. At the same time, she gave to the house a note listing the number of times she had met the employees to hear their grievances despite their not being recognised.

Referring to criticism of why the employees were being treated as on ?deemed? deputation, she said this was something the employees had themselves wanted. In fact, certain Rules drawn in 2002 but had been kept in abeyance because of differences amongst employees.

Referring to complaints about the content or quality of programming, she said that all Kendras had been asked to set up advisory committees of eminent citizens.

She said while the Group of Ministers on Prasar Bharati had suggested that the wage bill should be split equally with the government, it was the Ministry which had suggested that the entire wage bill would be borne by the Government for the employees working as on 5 October 2007.

In his reply, Jatua said the delay in the Bill was because drawing up regulations for the various categories of employees took a long time but the Ministry had processed these expeditiously and they were now with the Department of Personnel and Training which is also examining the case of casual employees.

Agreeing with members that work had suffered because of shortage of staff, he said that the GoM had now recommended filling up of 3,452 posts immediately and this had been referred to the Department of Expenditure.

The Bill was also aimed at giving more supervisory and regulatory authority to Prasar Bharati because of greater functional autonomy, he said.

Answering members, he said the selection of the Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati was done by a three member committee comprising the vice-president, the chairman of the Press Council of India, and a nominee of the President. It was thus not the prerogative of the Ministry.
The employees working under deputation will get all facilities at par with Central government employees.

The amendment had become necessary "since the recommendations of the GoM will settle all long standing issues regarding status of employees working in Prasar Bharati and empower the public broadcaster with all disciplinary and supervisory powers, including the power to transfer."

The official amendment relating to the deemed status means amendment to section 11(2) of the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill 2010 by the addition of the words "and until their retirement" at the end of the section. This will make the status of the employees recruited between 23 November 1997 and 5 October 2007, making their deemed deputation to Prasar Bharati till their retirement absolutely clear and unambiguous.

A provision has also been made to maintain the status quo in respect of employees belonging to Indian Information service and Central Secretariat service and other cadres borne outside that of All India Radio and Doordarshan. It says that the Ministry and Prasar Bharati may jointly work out the number of deputation posts to be manned by officers of the Indian Information Service cadre.

The GoM had said that employees recruited from 6 October 2007 will be deemed to be employees of the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) and subject to rules drawn up by the Board of the public broadcaster.

Though the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act was passed in June 1990, it was notified as a statutory corporation only from November 1997. Section 11 of the Act had given employees the option to decide whether they wanted to join the Corporation or go back to the government, but no action was taken as the rules for various categories of employees have not been drawn up in the past twelve years.

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha today passed the bill for amending the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 for treating all government officers and employees recruited by All India Radio or Doordarshan as on 5 October 2007 to be on ?deemed deputation? with effect from April 2000 till the time of their retirement.

The Bill for amending Section 11 and some other provisions of the Act was moved by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting CM Jatua and passed unanimously.

embers also passed three official amendments in the Bill following acceptance of the action taken on the recommendations made in the Eighteenth Report on "Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill, 2010" of the Standing Committee on Information Technology.
Subsequently, Rule 37A of the CCS Pension Rules will also be amended through gazette notification.

The Bill had been introduced in September, 20 months after the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Prasar Bharati had decided in January last year, ending an uncertainty that had prevailed for a decade. This decision will benefit around 38,000 employees.

In reply to the discussion, I&B Minister Ambika Soni said that any association of employees desirous of recognition had to fulfill the criteria laid by the Department of Personnel and Training.

Referring to some of the questions raised, she denied that the DD Urdu was being closed down and said over Rs 800 million that would be spent over the next few years for the channel, where commissioning of programmes was also going on. Referring to DD Kashir, she said the aim was to cover all languages and dialects spoken in Jammu and Kashmir.

She said that DD Direct Plus, which was increasing its capacity to 150 free-to-air channels, would be earning Rs 30 million per channel per year as against Rs 6.5 million earlier.

She said Doordarshan and All India Radio were the only channels in the country which had never been found guilty of any violations of the Programme or Advertising Codes.

Earlier, members generally supported the Bill and felt that DD News was more authentic and DD serials were more realistic than those telecast by other private channels. However, some members felt that the public broadcaster had lost its utility and should be wound up, leaving Doordarshan and AIR to be run by the Government.

Until 2000, the employees had been deemed as full government employees and their status was changed to ?deemed employees? from 1 April 2000.

The employees working under deputation will get all facilities at par with Central government employees.

The amendment had become necessary "since the recommendations of the GoM will settle all long standing issues regarding status of employees working in Prasar Bharati and empower the public broadcaster with all disciplinary and supervisory powers, including the power to transfer."

The official amendment relating to the deemed status means amendment to section 11(2) of the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill 2010 by the addition of the words "and until their retirement" at the end of the section. This will make the status of the employees recruited between 23 November 1997 and 5 October 2007, making their deemed deputation to Prasar Bharati till their retirement absolutely clear and unambiguous.
A provision has also been made to maintain the status quo in respect of employees belonging to Indian Information service and Central Secretariat service and other cadres borne outside that of All India Radio and Doordarshan. It says that the Ministry and Prasar Bharati may jointly work out the number of deputation posts to be manned by officers of the Indian Information Service cadre.

The GoM had said that employees recruited from 6 October 2007 will also be deemed to be employees of the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) and subject to rules drawn up by the Board of the public broadcaster.

Though the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act was passed in June 1990, it was notified as a statutory corporation only from November 1997. Section 11 of the Act had given employees the option to decide whether they wanted to join the Corporation or go back to the government, but no action was taken as the rules for various categories of employees have not been drawn up in the past 12 years.

Accepting the recommendation of the GoM in January last year, the Cabinet had said all employees working on that date in vacant government posts and recruited as per government rules ?shall enjoy status equivalent to employees serving on deemed deputation from the date of their joining the service under All India Radio or Doordarshan till the time of their retirement?. However, they will not be entitled to any deputation allowance.?

Soni added, "The UPA government has also sanctioned Rs 1.10 billion for strengthening transmission in border areas, especially in Jammu and Kashmir," she said, adding that DD-Kashir is being watched by people in PoK also, thus reflecting its popularity.

Earlier moving the Bill, Jatua said there are a total of 40,173 sanctioned posts in Prasar Bharati of which 11,498 were vacant and the ministry was in the process of filling these. He said with the amendment of the Act, the status of the employees would be settled.

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati has decided that Rs 710 million will be spent for creating quality content for the public broadcaster during the current year 2011-12.

This is out of Rs 1.42 billion allocated early this year by the Empowered Finance Committee (EFC) of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. A sum of Rs 500 million had been earmarked for 2010-11 and the balance Rs 210 million will be spent in 2012-13.

However, apart from the national channel of Doordarshan, only three regional language channels - DD Urdu, DD Kashir, and DD North East - are permitted to commission programmes. All other channels have to produce in-house programmes or get sponsored content.

The largest slice of the amount - around Rs 800 million (around 57 per cent) - is going to DD Urdu where commissioning of fresh programmes is continuing. DD India and DD Bharati will get Rs 140 million each, while Rs 160 million will go to other regional language satellite channels. DD News will get Rs 100 million and DD Archives will get just Rs 90 million.

This will help Prasar Bharati produce over 15,000 episodes of new programming and earn DD a minimum of Rs 400 million.

Meanwhile, the Government has again denied that there is any proposal to hand over the DD Direct Plus services to the private sector, while noting that the capacity is being increased from 97 to 150 channels by the end of next year.