GoM meeting on Prasar Bharati postponed

New Delhi, July 3 (UNI) A meeting of the Group of Ministers, which was scheduled to take place today to take a final decision on giving an option to the 40,000-odd employees of Prasar Bharati to remain with the public broadcaster or go back to the Government, was postponed.

Sources in the Information and Brodcasting Ministry, however, did not assign any reason for the postponement of the meeting of the GoM, headed by Home Minister Shivraj Patil.

''The decision to postpone the meeting was taken last evening itself,'' the sources added.

However, Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi did hold a meeting with Prasar Bharati CEO B S Lalli and other high officials, where the issue is understood to have come up for discussions.

Section 11 of the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990 provides for an option to the employees to remain with the broadcaster or go back to the Government.

The GoM has been empowered to take a final decision on the long-pending issue by August two, in keeping with a direction of the Supreme Court.

The apex court had in February this year asked the government to take a final view within six months.

In the wake of the court directive, the contentious issue was referred to a high-level Committee of Officers, which had submitted its report to the GoM.

Mr Lalli had put June as the deadline for completing the work of preparing the rules and regulations for the nearly 100 categories of employees in the public broadcaster. However, the Supreme Court directed the broadcaster to complete the work by early August.

A recent survey showed that 98 per cent of the employees in Delhi and Bangalore were keen to return to Government.

The opinion poll conducted by Akashdarshan Backward Classes Employees Association (ABCEA) on May Day said the employees cited ''extreme dissatisfaction'' with their working conditions, uncertainty and poor career prospects as reasons for their wanting to return to government service.

A total of 664 programme staff, including 94 from Bangalore, responded to the opinion poll. The views of some retired employees of the public broadcaster were also elicited.

Commenting on the survey, Mr Lalli had said it was not surprising because a government job provided a sense of security to the employees.

''However, the broadcaster would be able to give similar security once the work of preparing the rules and guidelines for each cadre of employees is completed,'' he added.

He also said that though the salaries of Prasar Bharati employees were largely being borne by the government from non-Plan expenditure, the public broadcaster was contributing around Rs 30 crore annually from its own resources.

UNI