The Government should meet 50 per cent of the operating expenses of Prasar Bharati and the rest should be borne by the pubcaster.The pubcaster also wants the government to meet the entire expense on salaries and allowances of its employees.
In a major decision taken by the Prasar Bharati Board in its meeting this morning, it was decided that the public service broadcaster will meet total expenses for programming related work..

       The existing provision requires Prasar Bharati to generate at least 50 per cent of its operating expenses as commercial revenue.The Board, which is forwarding its decision to the Group of Ministers for a final decision, felt that given the nature of the public broadcaster a more pragmatic and workable formula needs to be evolved.

        The long-pending Recruitment Rules for 196 cadres of employees in Prasar Bharati were considered for forwarding to Government. Non-existence of these Rules ever since Prasar Bharati came into being in 1997 was a major reason for the huge backlog in filling up the vacancies and making vital appointments, something which has come under heavy criticism in Parliamentary Committees.

       The Board also proposed extensive amendments to the Prasar Bharati Act to be referred to Government for consideration. This was felt necessary specifically in the wake of the recent events when serious reservations and questions had been raised on propriety, accountability of Prasar Bharati by various bodies in Government and others.

       The Board also interviewed candidates for the posts of Doordarshan Director General following repatriation of Aruna Sharma to her parent cadre, and All India Radio Director General as Noreen Naqvi is retiring. The short-listed names have been forwarded for a final selection to the Government to avoid a vacuum in administrative functioning. The Board also delegated the financial powers and broad-based the Empowered Committee on Finance with the co-option of the financial representatives of Doordarshan and All India Radio to improve the quality of decision making.

      Taking note of the progress made by various Committees set-up by the Board in January 2011, the Board said the working of these Committees required to be expedited. A large number of matters for fixation of responsibility, matters pertaining to wrongful exercise of powers etc., needed to be addressed at the earliest so that the individual responsibility could be fixed and corrective action initiated.

       The Board also said the process of appointing special auditors with well defined functions and internal auditors for Prasar Bharati should also be completed on fast track to allow proper rectification measures.

       After considering all aspects and the projected income statement from both All India Radio and Doordarshan, the Board expressed complete satisfaction with the role played by the Marketing Wing for excellent marketing of the ongoing Cricket World Cup for which ESPN Star Sports have the marketing rights. The Board called upon the Wing to submit a final report after the World Cup comes to end.incidentally, in a letter to the Chairperson of the Prasar Bharati Board, Member (Finance) AK Jain had alleged that DD's Rs-300 million bid allowed ESPN to "walk away" with its bid of Rs 320 million, "which is substantially lower than the revenues which should have been expected out of this event."

       "I recommend a detailed enquiry/investigation into this and also all cricket rights contracts entered into between 2009 till date as these have been settled at throwaway prices causing financial losses to Prasar Bharati in crores," Jain stated in the letter dated 14 February 2011. Jain had blown the whistle about irregularities during the tenure of B S Lalli.

      "The appropriate bid in this regard, in my view, should have been placed at Rs 112.5 crore based on a conservative assessment," said Jain. DD's bid of Rs 30 crore considering an average realisation of a meagre Rs 40,000 per spot of 10 seconds is "downright a pointer to serious financial irregularities", he said adding that the contract was settled "with the approval of DG, DD and the Nominated Member without following the regular financial process despite the same being pointed out".

          A senior Prasar Bharati executive said that ESPN Star Sports would have to part with 25 per cent of the revenue (mandatory sharing clause) that comes from the World Cup telecast on Doordarshan. "So it doesn't matter if DD or ESS handles the ad sales," he added

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