The chickens may be finally coming home to roost for sundry officials in pubcaster Prasar Bharati. I&B minister Sushma Swaraj has informed Parliament that her ministry has prepared a list of tainted officials in conjunction with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The last few months have seen a number of questions being raised as to how deals are sanctioned by the Prasar Bharati. It was in January that the CBI raided the offices and residences of three senior officials of Prasar Bharati who allegedly accepted bribes to clear programmes for the Doordarshan.

Swaraj reportedly told the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parlaiament) last week that four of the five cases the CBI had registered had been received by the ministry.

She has been quoted by The Times of India newspaper as saying: "The government has accepted the recommendations of the CBI in these cases and the same shall be forwarded to the central vigilanmce commission."

Reports also state that the CBI had looked into 23 cases of corruption involving Group ‘A‘ officers. The system of purchasing and procuring programmes had been reviewed and streamlined to make the system more transparent she said.

Children‘s channel Nickelodeon may suffer from a lack of visibility in India but abroad its shows are growing in popularity. More proof of this is provided in the fact that the network has snagged six daytime Emmy nominations for shows like Blues Clues and Little Bill.

The 29th edition of the Daytime Emmy Awards will be held at New York‘s famous Madison Square Garden on 17 May. The awards given out by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, will be broadcast on CBS.

One of the nominations for Nickelodeon‘s Blues Clues was in the Pre- School Children‘s Series category. It goes up against PBS‘ Sesame Street. Little Bill has been nominated in the special class animated programme category.

In the Children‘s Series category, the Disney Channel, expected to launch in India soon, pops up with Even Stevens. Competition includes PBS‘ Reading Rainbow, Between the Lions and Zoom.

ABC‘s programme All My Children led the scorecard with 21 nominations. CBS took 55 nominations, while ABC and PBS had 49 each. The Showtime cable network and NBC got 17 and 11 nominations respectively. Syndicated programming combined for 38 nominations.

In the lead actress category Susan Flannery has been nominated for ‘The Bold and the Beautiful‘ which continues to air on Star World. Her competition includes Susan Lucci and Finola Hughes for All My Children, Colleen Zenk Pinter and Martha Byrne for As the World Turns.

Lead Actor sees Jack Scalia and Vincent Irizarry for All My Children along with Robert Newman for Guiding Light the longest running soap on the tube.

For Best Talk Show the nominees are The Rosie O‘Donnell Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, The View and The Montel Williams Show.

The Game Show category sees Hollywood Squares which used to air on Star World going up against Jeopardy!, The Price Is Right and Win Ben Stein‘s Money.