Although the issue of treating a majority of its employees as on deemed deputation has been resolved through Parliament, the possibility of filling up vacancies in Prasar Bharati appears to have received a setback with the pubcaster refusing to accept the report of the National Productivity Council (NPC) on the subject.

A report sent by Prasar Bharati to fill essential categories of posts had been submitted by the broadcaster to the Department of Expenditure, which had returned the report asking Prasar Bharati to re-submit the proposal based on the report of the NPC.

However, Prasar Bharati had informed the Group of Ministers as early as 24 March 2011 about its disagreement with the NPC reportNoting that there "seems to be no solution in sight in the near future," a Parliamentary Committee has said "the disagreement is bound to create further problems for Prasar Bharati which is already reeling under shortage of manpower."

While appreciating the administrative comments raised by the Department of Expenditure, the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology want the Department of Expenditure to realise the problems that Prasar Bharati is facing due to vacant essential posts. The Committee wants "some relief" to be given to Prasar Bharati so as to enable it to augment its staff strength.

The Committee note that against the sanctioned strength of 48,172, there are 11, 498 vacancies in various cadres as on 31 March, 2010. There are 3,452 essential categories of posts which are lying vacant in Prasar Bharati.

Meanwhile, though the Committee is 'relieved' that the regulations for all 195 cadres in Prasar Bharati have been finalised, they have still not been cleared by the Department of Personnel and the Law Ministry. After their scrutiny, these regulations would be notified.

The Committee therefore want that the matter should be vigorously followed up with the Department of Personnel and Law Ministry to ensure that these Recruitment Rules are urgently examined and thereafter notified at the earliest.

During the discussion earlier this month on the Prasar Bharati (Amendment) Bill for treating all employees who were in the pubcaster as on 5 October 2007 as on deemed deputation with full benefits of civil servants, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni that the Ministry was awaiting a reply from the Department of Personnel and Training and the Law Ministry in this regard.

Interestingly, a Parliamentary Committee which has studied the status of women employees in Prasar Bharati in 2009 and 2010 had also strongly criticised the Government for not filling posts against sanctioned strength in Prasar Bharati, noting that "the Committee is extremely unhappy that a large number of creative young women and men are denied the chance to be part of the public broadcasting service in the country", though it noticed there were legal and administrative constraints behind this state of affairs.

It was observed that there was a shortage of 44.8 per cent of the sanctioned strength in group 'A' and about 40 per cent in Group 'B' in Doordarshan, and 58.8 per cent of the posts in Group 'A' were vacant in All India Radio. As many as 4629 posts in Doordarshan and 6433 posts in All India Radio remain unfilled.

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