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 Up loaded on Sunday April 11, 2010

GoM to take up the financial restructuring of the public broadcaster  Prasar Bharati on 13-04-10.

 

                 The newly-constituted Group of Ministers (GoM) on Prasar Bharati would take up the long pending issue of financial restructuring of the public broadcaster when it meets for the first time on April 13.

            The GoM headed by Home Minister P. Chidambaram was reconstituted on February 10 this year after the previous GoM had ceased to exist at the end of UPA-I tenure. Financial restructuring would be discussed in the meet, official sources said.

       
           Financial restructuring, the sources said, would allow the public broadcaster to tap the capital market and other financial institutions for generating funds on its own, without relying on government funding.

          On several occasions in the past, the government had tried to implement the process of Prasar Bharati’s financial restructuring but without any success, they said.



         In fact, even the previous GoM during the first tenure of the UPA government had been asked to consider the matter, but it consistently got postponed, mainly due to concerns raised by employees of the public broadcaster who felt this could hamper their salary structures or perks, the sources said.

          Official sources in the ministry said if financial restructuring of the organisation does happen, then it may help the national broadcaster to go public.

       Senior ministers in the UPA cabinet including Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Telecom Minister A Raja and Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy, are part of the newly-reconstituted GoM.

        According to the sources, the GoM is also expected to take up recommendations of the Narayana Murthy Commission, formed more than a decade back. Headed by N.R. Narayana Murthy, founder-chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited, the committee in the late 1990s had suggested measures for efficient functioning of Prasar Bharati, which are still under government’s consideration.

 

        FRIENDS OF PRASAR BHARATI  strongly condemn the move by the Group of Ministers (GoM)  to take up the issue of financial restructuring of the public broadcaster in the present form.

 

        If it is implemented    it may be the first step to disinvest or privatize AIR  &DD .If it is implemented  The National & Public Service Broadcaster will become  just a tool in the hands of market forces.

 

            If shares are floated in the market, it will become a entity solely at the mercy of the market forces which will defeat the very fundamental objective of the National & Public Service Broadcaster .
 
         It is move totally against the interest of the entire Nation  and its DEMOCRACY  and against the interest of the employees .

 

          FRIENDS OF PRASAR BHARATI  cosider that  scenario ,even worst than a complete control  of AIR & DD  by the elected government of this country. Because even a complete control of  the AIR &DD  by the government  can be changed or modified as a result of public and political consensus that can be emerged at any point of time in future. But once the capitalist and market forces taken control of the AIR & DD  , it will not be an easy task to regain the control of the AIR & DD .

 

         FRIENDS OF PRASAR BHARATI  strongly condemn the move by the Group of Ministers (GoM)  and request the government to give  the    DIRECT  & COMPLETE

 FUNDING OF AIR & DD ,FROM THE CONSOLIDATED FUND OF INDIA.

 

 

  

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