Parliamentary Committee for amending Prasar Bharati Act

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.