Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni today said certain sections in the Prasar Bharati Act, which have not been implemented for long, will be dropped and disparity between the employees of Ministry and Prasar Bharati will be done away with and vacancies filled.AIR and DD employees have been demanding that the Prasar Bharati Act be repealed and a new act brought in its place after proper consultations.

        Ms Soni said the amendment to the said Act was a larger issue to which a GoM is in place under Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.

       ''The GoM has held two-three meetings and in its last meeting, it had decided that when it sits next, it will meet with three basic propositions, which are: firstly, amendment to the Act, meaning certain sections in the Act, which have not been implemented till date, would be dropped. Secondly, the 11,000 vacancies would be filled. The GoM has asked the Prasar Bharati to form a recruitment board for the same. Thirdly, the disparity between a certain rank of employees of the Ministry and Prasar Bharati would be done away with. The last item on the agenda does not apply to the all the employees in general,'' Ms Soni told UNI on the sidelines of a function to release the 2011 Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity (DAVP) calendar here. The stalemate on promotion would also be resolved and the National Federation of Akashvani and Doordarshan employees would also be consulted.

      With the Prasar Bharati Act coming into force, the Akashvani and Doordarshan, which were government departments till 1997, were converted into autonomous corporation. Since sometime after the implementation of the Act, the employees have been demanding its repeal and both AIR and DD be re-converted into government departments alleging that they were being deprived of many benefits due to the change of status.

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