Prasar Bharati Act does not bar posting of IAS officers to its board, says Rathore

IN FEB, PRASAR BHARATI HAD SAID THAT ALL SERVING IAS OFFICERS SHOULD RESIGN BEFORE JOINING THE PUBLIC BROADCASTER

NEWDELHI: The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday that the Prasar Bharati Act does not bar the appointment of Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers as member (personnel) to the public broadcaster’s board.

The ministry’s reply comes nearly a month after the Prasar Bharati Board had refused its suggestion to hire a serving IAS officer through the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC route).

“As per Prasar Bharati (BCI) Act, 1990, Member (Personnel) shall be a person having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of personnel management and administration. The Act does not bar officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) for appointment as Member (Personnel) on the Prasar Bharati Board. In the past, officers of the IAS have been appointed as Member (Personnel),” minister of state for I&B Rajyavardhan Rathore said.

Prasar Bharati is an autonomous body under the information and broadcasting ministry and has All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan as its broadcast arms.

Rathore added t hat all appointments of any member on the Prasar Bharati Board is made by the President , on the recommendations of a commit- tee that has on board the vicepresident, Press Council of India’s chairman and President’s nominee.

In February, the Prasar Bharati Board had refused to take up the MIB’S suggestion to appoint IAS officers to the Board through the ACC route, stating that all serving officers should resign before joining the public broadcaster, an official aware of the developments said.

“The Board had pointed out that if a serving officer of any service, i ncluding I AS is appointed they have to resign from their service to be able to join as full-time members. They cannot be on deputation. However, if the ministry’s suggestion of routing the selection through ACC is followed, then they won’t resign from their service, which will be in contravention of the Act,” the official said.

Hindustan Times could not get a response from Prasar Bharati on the issue. MIB officials also did not respond.

The MIB, in response to another query on whether the government had proposed to terminate the services of all contractual employees of t he Prasar Bharati, told Parliament in the written reply that there was “no such proposal by the government”.

The issue of sacking contractual employees from the public broadcaster’s rolls was also raised at the Prasar Bharati’s last board meeting.

Another official aware of the details said, the board had objected to the MIB’S language in the resolution that called for cutting contractual jobs.

“It was then pointed out that the provisions of the PB Act would be violated and the office of vice-president would be denigrated,” the second official said on the condition of anonymity.