The Prasar Bharati Board has washed its hands off the decision to give CBI sanction for investigation of former Doordarshan chief Aruna Sharma citing lack of time and resources and has sent the prickly issue back to the I&B ministry.

           The PB Board unanimously resolved that it could not spare the time and resources to consider the issue which has now landed back in the I&B ministry's lap. The Board said it did not have the time, manpower and resources to evaluate the recommendations made by the Shunglu committee and Sharma's voluminous response to the charges.

         The Shunglu committee report made public on February 1 had named PB CEO B S Lalli and Sharma as responsible for causing a Rs 135 crore loss in the CWG broadcast deal. Both officers have been accused of working in cohorts and giving UK broadcast firm SIS Live and Zoom Communications undue advantage.

          In response to the report, PMO had on February 18 directed the ministry to take appropriate action within two weeks. It was also recommended that the report be referred to the CBI. While permission to take action against Lalli was given on March 1, the ministry continues to drag its feet in Sharma's case even two months later. It had recently sent Sharma's case to the Board for its recommendation.

       Sources said there was tremendous pressure to scuttle the CBI probe as it would weaken Lalli's case. A Prasar Bharati source said, "No one wanted to take a call and the issue was discussed for a few minutes before it was decided that the file should be sent back to the ministry."

          The move comes at a time when there is a section of the ministry and the Board that feels Sharma's case was "different" from Lalli's and that she was merely implementing the decisions made by Lalli. Lalli headed the host broadcaster management committee (HBMC) and any decision made by Sharma could be overruled by him. Sources said there was a distinction being made between "illegal decisions" and "irregularities" and that Sharma could be found responsible for the latter but not the former.

        Other decisions made by the Board included restoring the financial powers of the Board from Rs 1 crore to Rs 20 crore to hasten implementation of projects. It was also decided that DD will launch 200 channels on its DTH platform by year-end through the public private partnership model and that these channels will be sold through e-auction.

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