The Government should immediately move to either set up a Parliamentary Committee and a Broadcasting Council as envisaged under the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 or take a comprehensive look at the Act as recommended by the Group of Ministers without any delay, a Parliamentary Committee has said

The Standing Committee on Information Technology in its Action Taken Report on its report for Demands of Grants by the I&B Ministry for 2010-11 expressed "serious concern over the non-implementation of the important provisions" of the Act 20 years after the Act was passed by Parliament.

he GoM had asked the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to take a comprehensive look at the Act for suitable amendments "in the light of amendments over the last 20 years, subsequent to the Shunu Sen Committee Report".

The GoM had further said that the Shunu Sen Committee’s recommendation for a single complaints mechanism for all broadcasters under the aegis of the proposed Broadcast Authority "deserved merit".

The Standing Committee also said in the report placed in Parliament that the Ministry should take immediate steps to finalise the proposed Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill and introduce it in Parliament. The Committee took note of the Ministry’s statement that the Task Force headed by I&B Secretary had been expected to submit its report by October 2010 and hoped that this report would have been submitted "by now".

Taking note of the recommendations of the GoM on financial restructuring of Prasar Bharati, the Committee reiterated its recommendation for "some sort of mechanism to review the initiatives taken by Prasar Bharati in a year to increase its earnings", saying such a mechanism would also assure the officers and employees of Prasar Bharati that the rganisation is capable of meeting the expenditure on their salaries and allowances and to function in an efficient and independent manner.

The Committee took note of the statement by the Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati that the task of recruitment regulations for all the 190 cadres in the pubcaster would be completed by 31 March 2011. The Committee had been informed that the work relating to only 88 cadres had been completed at the time it heart the Ministry and the pubcaster.

The Committee, therefore, said it strongly emphasised the need to set up Recruitment Boards and finalize Recruitment Regulations and Service Conditions without further delay so that "uncertainty about the status of employees ends and the critical vacancies are filled up expeditiously so as to enable the Corporation to work in an effective way".

|||||| Thank you for your interest.||||||