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: 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.