Information and Broadcasting Ministry Releases Salaries for Doordarshan and All India Radio Employees

New Delhi, June 5: The ministry of information and broadcasting has released salaries of the employees of Doordarshan and All India Radio. An official on Tuesday told Hindustan Times that the IB ministry had released Rs 617 crore towards the payment of salaries of three months for the employees of Doordarshan and All India Radio.

Even though the autonomous body under the ministry has not signed a memorandum, the salary fund for the employees of AIR and DD has been released. Both AIR and DD are the broadcast arms of Prasar Bharati. Autonomous bodies have to sign a MoU with the concerned ministry for getting grants-in-aid by the government.

The money will be spent on salaries for April, May and June. An official on the condition of anonymity told Hindustan Times, “The decision to release the funds was taken soon after the appointment of the secretary Amit Khare on June 1. The formalities of signing the MoU will be subsequently cleared, but for now the salary disbursal has been taken care of,’

According to media reports, there was a stand-off between the ministry and the Prasar Bharati this year, because of which the salaries of DD and AIR employees were withheld. According to the report, the Prasar Bharati was forced to pay salaries for January and February from its contingency funds.

However, the ministry, then headed by Smriti Irani, said that the funds meant for salaries were not released since Prasar Bharati had not signed a memorandum of understanding with it, which was necessary as per rules. After the media highlighted the issue of non-payment of funds, the ministry in February released Rs. 208 core for salaries.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 05, 2018 07:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).