NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari has assured Parliament that the time of Urdu news from the Hyderabad Kendra of Doordarshan would be increased as the need arises.

He said that 44 Regional News Units of News Services Division, All India Radio, broadcast regional news bulletins.

In addition to this, a Regional News Unit has been set up at Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir which broadcasts regional news bulletins.

In Doordarshan, 29 Regional News Units telecast regional news from its various Kendras.

He said in reply to another supplementary question that both AIR and Doordarshan regularly transmit programmes which help the farmer in learning about various cultivation techniques and keeping him updated about the latest in this particular field.

There are 48 regional news bulletins in 18 languages, which are produced centrally from the News Service Division of AIR. In addition to this, 181 bulletins in 74 languages are produced and broadcast from the RNUs, and this covers the 22 scheduled languages.

There are 1019 news-based programmes from RNUs in 21 languages which are broadcast. And this totally amounts to 117 hours and 15 minutes of programming per week. In addition to that, you have 290 headline bulletins from FM Rainbow in 15 languages.

He accepted a suggestion to make the news as local as possible and content rich and more focussed on local imperatives.
 
Tewari said in reply to another supplementary that Prasar Bharati had been taking steps to augment infrastructure both in terms of gathering of news and dissemination of news in Doordarshan and AIR. A process has been started of digitising the various studios of Doordarshan to ensure that the quality of news which is broadcast is of the optimum level and this project will be completed by 2017. A total of 145 stations are currently being digitised.

In AIR, there are complaints which have come in that the medium wave transmission is not audible, and that, to a certain extent, is correct because over the years, the power of the transmitters have gone low because these are legacy equipment.

A total of 71 transmitters have been replaced in the 11th Plan and the power of 33 medium wave FM transmitters is being upgraded to see that broadcasting becomes better.

Prasar Bharati is also in the process of recruiting additional people and 1150 vacancies have been sanctioned.

NEW DELHI: Even as the pubcaster gears up with programmes to mark the International Women?s Day, it has admitted that women employees account for a mere 9.8 per cent in Doordarshan and 9.3 per cent in All India Radio (AIR).

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources have also told indiantelevision.com that there are no plans at present to reserve posts for women in Prasar Bharati.

The government had recently approved revival of 1150 posts in the pubcaster to meet urgent requirements.

Interestingly, there have been no fresh recruitments and AIR, which had 8462 vacancies in various categories three months earlier, now has 10081 vacancies. Doordarshan has 6186 vacant posts in the various categories.

The vacancies arose due to retirements, resignations, deaths etc since the establishment of Prasar Bharati on 15 September 1997, and there have been no fresh recruitments.

The Government has also granted approval for undertaking recruitment against Group B and C posts through the Staff Selection Commission as a one-time dispensation to fill critical posts expeditiously.

In AIR, there are 1362 vacancies in Group A, 1,584 in Group B, 4863 in Group C and 2272 in group D.

In Doordarshan, 724 posts are vacant in Group A, 1140 in Group B, 2871 in Group C, and 1451 in Group D.

Casual presenters were being booked by AIR stations on assignment basis for six to seven days

Earlier last year, a Parliamentary Committee had noted that AIR and Doordarshan have a total staff strength of 33,800 against a total sanctioned strength of 48,022, leaving a gap of 14222 posts. The most critically affected areas are the Programme Wing and the News Services Division (AIR)/DD News.

The existing strength in the Programme Wing is just 6108 out of the total sanctioned strength of 10679, leaving the gap of 4571. Similarly, in NSD/News, there are 146 vacancies in the sanctioned strength of 379 with the present strength at 255.

The Standing Committee of Parliament on Information Technology which examines issues relating to I&B also regretted that Prasar Bharati had failed to live up to the assurance given by then Prasar Bharati CEO that the Recruitment Boards for Prasar Bharati would be set up by 31 March 2011.

The Committee had been informed that the notification with regard to setting up of Recruitment Board is under inter-Ministerial consultation. The Committee was given to understand that there are still some issues to be resolved between the Ministry/Department of Expenditure and the Department of Personnel.

Since Prasar Bharati is an autonomous body albeit supported by the Government, both UPSC and SSC have refused to select for a non-Governmental organisation.

The proposal for setting up a Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board was approved by Prasar Bharati Board on 21 July 2010 and discussed in the Ministry and a final proposal was referred to the Department of Personnel and Training on 15 February 2011. DOP&T concurred with the proposal in June 2011 and the comments of the Department of Expenditure (DOE) were also received on 28 September last year. The DoE had requested that a separate proposal be formulated for creation of posts for the secretariat of Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board and also requested for drafting of agreement containing terms and conditions of the members of the Board.

This had been done and the proposal sent to DoE in February 2012 and has now been forwarded to the Law Ministry.

NEW DELHI: As many as 120 of 281 cases in Doordarshan and 12 out of 516 cases in All India Radio (AIR) have been decided in favour of the staff by the Central Administrative Tribunal and various courts.

A large number of these cases are now pending in appeal in various courts.

Prasar Bharati sources said the Recruitment Regulations for various categories of Prasar Bharati employees were notified during 2000-2002.

However, these were kept in abeyance by Prasar Bharati as the terms and conditions were not acceptable to the employees. The amendments made to Section 11 of the Prasar Bharati Act in 2012 has settled the status of employees working in Prasar Bharati. In pursuance to amendments to Section-11, it was decided to frame new Recruitment Regulations governing the service conditions of the employees recruited by Prasar Bharati after 5 October 2007.

Following approval of Prasar Bharati?s Board, the Government has already communicated its approval for the Recruitment Regulations in respect of 4 categories of staff, viz. Cameraman Grade-II, Engineering Assistant, Technician and Head Clerk/ Assistant (for notification).

NEW DELHI: The financial woes of the Prasar Bharati continue well into the current financial year. For the nine months ended 31 December 2012, the pubcaster has seen a Rs 3.23 billion drop in revenues despite having simulcast shows from private satellite broadcasters like Star Plus? Aamir Khan-anchored Satyamev Jayate and Zee TV?s Ramayan. The Olympics in July also did not help shore up the revenues this fiscal.

Prasar Bharati has reported a revenue of Rs 10.86 billion for the first nine months of the fiscal, down from Rs 14.09 billion a year ago.

The loss, however, has narrowed as the pubcaster has drastically reduced its costs. The expenditure incurred by Prasar Bharati for the nine months ended December 2012 was Rs 23.95 billion compared to Rs 33.40 billion a year ago.
 
The Government had in September last year approved a Financial Restructuring package for Prasar Bharati comprising 100 per cent salary support for five years, waiver of accumulated government debt, space and spectrum charges etc.

The increase in expenditure during the past few years has been primarily due to the implementation of various recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission.

NEW DELHI: Even as the grants-in-aid for Prasar Bharati has been raised from the revised estimates of Rs 17.29 billion to Rs 21.80 billion, there is no separate investment by the Government in the pubcaster.

In the Budget of 2012-13, the government had made investments of Rs 2.83 billion according to revised estimates, though the budget for the year had set aside a provision of Rs 4.01 billion. However, there is provision for investment of Rs 2 billion from Internal and Extra-budgetary resources for Prasar Bharati.

An explanatory memorandum says that the grants-in-aid is towards meeting the salary and salary related expenditure.

Prasar Bharati sources told indiantelevision.com said this had been done to meet the extra expenditure on salaries which has fallen on the shoulders of the Government since all Prasar Bharati employees who were in employment as on 5 October 2007 have been given deemed deputation status.

Contrary to expectations, the government has not set aside any amount specifically for marking the centenary of Indian cinema or digitisation of the cable television sector.

However, the allocation under ?Secretariat-Social services? covering centenary celebrations and digitisation has gone up to Rs 1.44 billion from the revised estimates of Rs 1.03 billion.

The total budget of the I&B Ministry has been raised to Rs 30.36 billion for 2013-14 against the revised budget of Rs 26.93 billion (against the initial allocation of Rs 27.37 billion) for the previous year.

An explanatory note says that Secretariat-Social services also covers expenses on development of community radio, development support to the north-east as well as Jammu and Kashmir and ?other identified areas?, promotion of Indian cinema through film festivals and film markets in India and abroad, production of films and documentaries in various Indian languages, National Film Heritage Mission, anti-piracy initiatives, the proposed National Centre for Animation and Gaming, and automation of broadcast services.

The allocation under the Film Sector has, unlike last year, been increased to Rs 1.17 billion for 2013-14. Last year, the budget for the film sector was Rs 841.1 million, though the revised estimates had put this figure at Rs 888.8 million. There is an additional outlay of Rs 70.4 million towards certification of cinematographic films.

For the fourth year in a row, the government has not announced any investment in the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).

The allocation for Press Information Services which includes grants to the Press Council of India has been marginally increased to Rs 613.6 from last year?s revised estimates of Rs 574.3 million to meet the expenses for the Press Information Bureau, the Press Council of India, and to the Press Trust of India for running the non-aligned countries news pool.

The allocation to the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre has been marginally increased to Rs 49.4 million from the revised estimates of Rs 44.6 million in 2012-13. The EMMC was set up for monitoring television and radio channels for violation of programme and advertising codes.

The allocation for advertising and visual publicity has been raised significantly to Rs 2.39 billion against the revised estimates of Rs 1.58 billion for 2012-13 following the increase in the advertising rates of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) and the decision to grant advertisements to community radio in addition to print and electronic media.

There is a major increase in the lump sum provision for projects/schemes for development of North-eastern areas including Sikkim from Rs 184.5 million in 2012-13 to Rs 905 million for 2013-14.

NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry wants the post of Member (Finance) in Prasar Bharati to be filled as expeditiously as possible, if the pubcaster has to embark on a path of change in financial and administrative reforms.

The Ministry has therefore written to the Union Cabinet seeking its approval in this regard, since this post has been vacant for over three months since the last incumbent A K Jain was transferred.

The Group of Ministers (GoM) on Prasar Bharati had recommended that the Board of Prasar Bharati should have younger members.

The GoM had suggested that the upper age limit for Member (Finance) should be brought down from 60 to 55 years. The Cabinet had asked the ministry to reconsider the GoM?s recommendation.

Ministry sources said the direction given by the GoM for financial restructuring of the pubcaster could not be implemented unless there was a specialised personnel for handling finances.