Home Minister P. Chidambaram to head Group of Ministers on Prasar Bharati.

             The Group of Ministers (GoM) dealing with issues relating to Prasar Bharati has been reconstituted, though no notification has been issued so far.

            Highly reliable sources told that the new GoM is headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram. The GoM was until recently headed by former Information and Broadcasting Minister and presently Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy, who will continue to be its member. Other Ministers who are members of the GoM include the Ministers of Law, I&B, Culture, and External Affairs.

           The primary purpose of the separate GoM for Prasar Bharati had arisen about a decade ago to work as a watchdog on the financial aspects of the pubcaster, which at that time was totally dependent on government funding. The GoM has also made several recommendations over the years with regards to streamlining the procedure for selection of programmes and ensuring greater transparency in the functioning of the public broadcaster. Recently, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni reiterated that Prasar Bharati should ensure transparency in its dealings, particularly as far as evaluation committees for programmes are concerned.

           Although the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act was passed in 1990, it was only in September 1997 that it was implemented. S Jaipal Reddy was the I&B minister at that time.Apart from the GoM, the functioning of Prasar Bharati is also overseen by the standing committee of MPs on Information  Technology and the consultative committee of MPs attached to the ministry