Prasar Bharati CEO accuses I&B Ministry of interference

Accusing I&B Ministry of trying to "micro-manage" the affairs of public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, its CEO Jawhar Sircar has written a letter to I&B Minister Manish Tewari complaining that he does not get enough cooperation.

In his letter, Sircar also raised questions about the ministry's interference in the affairs of the national broadcaster. Prasar Bharati is supposed to be an organisation which is autonomous in its functioning.

Senior officials said that apart from other issues, Sircar has in his letter written about lack of help received from the ministry in the process of filling up key vacancies.

A source said the ministry has also raised questions about people being employed on contract, when there was a view in Prasar Bharati that this manpower was much needed when regular appointments had not taken place.
 

Sources said the I&B Ministry had recently sought clarification from Prasar Bharati, which was readying plans to launch four Doordarshan channels in Hindi heartland states, if the decision to start the channels had been approved by the Prasar Bharati Board.

The ministry and Prasar Bharati took divergent views on the issue. While Prasar Bharati officials felt the four channels were already in operation and were only being "ramped up", the ministry insisted on knowing whether a "categorical" approval had been given by Prasar Bharati board.

"Apart from the differences over the new Hindi channels, there have been instances where there have been differences between the ministry and Prasar Bharati. Sircar has raised these issues as there is a concern among officials at Prasar Bharati about the tendency to question the functioning of the public broadcaster," a source said.