Govt clears filling of 1150 posts in All India Radio

NEW DELHI: With All India Radio (AIR) facing 8462 vacancies in various categories, the government has granted approval for filling up 1150 posts.

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.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told Parliament that of the 8,462 vacancies, 1,314 are Group A posts while there are 1,596 Group B posts, 3,618 Group C and 1,934 group D posts.

Tewari also said that non-availability of language experts on the permanent rolls for Urdu programmes have affected the quality of the 24-hours programme on AIR.

He clarified that the Urdu services are being managed through engagement of retired personnel and through outsourcing.

He said the shortage of staff had arisen because little fresh recruitment had taken place since the formation of Prasar Bharati in 1997.

In response to another question, he said that casual presenters were being booked by AIR stations on assignment basis for six to seven days.

Earlier this year, a Parliamentary Committee had noted that All India Radio 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 Committee for Information Technology also regretted that Prasar Bharati had failed to live up to the assurance given by then Prasar Bharati chief executive officer 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.

It is understood that the UPSC and SSC have both refused to select for a non-Governmental organisation, thus creating a new problem for the Ministry/Prasar Bharati.

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 would then be sent to Law Ministry.