Salary of Doordarshan & All India Radio Employees: Prasar Bharati and I&B Alleged Standoff

New Delhi, March 5: Amid escalating tensions surrounding India’s autonomous public broadcaster- Prasar Bharati, it has been clarified that Rs 208 crore released by the public broadcaster towards staff salaries were from its reserves. Prasar Bharati CEO SS Vempati on Monday issued a clarification saying that Rs 208 crore released towards staff salaries on February 28 were from IEBR (Internal and Extra Budgetary Resources) reserves.

The CEO tweeted saying, "Noticed reports in sections of media on non-disbursal of salaries to DD (Doordarshan) & AIR (All India Radio) staff. Rs 208 cr towards salaries were released on the 28th Feb 2018. Attempts to create panic malafide. PB (Prasar Bharati) has so far received Rs 1,989 crores from MIB (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) as grants-in-aid for salaries during FY2017-18." Hours later, he put out another tweet which read, "Rs 208 crores were released by @prasarbharati towards salaries for on 28th February 2018 from IEBR reserves."

Vempati's remarks come two days after media reports quoted Prasar Bharati Chairman A Surya Prakash saying that the public broadcaster had to pay staff salary for January and February out of its contingency funds as the ministry had not released the funds. Meanwhile, The Wire had claimed that the delay in release of funds was due to an alleged standoff between Prasar Bharati and the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry.

Earlier, a report by the Indian Express stated that the I&B ministry releases approximately Rs 200 crore every month, of which most is used to pay salaries of the 29,000 employees of Prasar Bharati. “After December it (I&B Ministry) has not released the salaries. Prasar Bharati has paid salaries out of its own funds. Its kitty will run dry by April end,” a source in Prasar Bharati was quoted by Indian Express.

Meanwhile, the Union Government had allocated Rs 2,996.76 crore in the budget 2016-17, which was revised to Rs 2,514.37 this year. Till December, the ministry has released around Rs 1,900 crore. The report further added that for sometime now, the Ministry has raised queries and created problems before releasing funds every month”.

Earlier, the I&B ministry had issued a statement reacting to the news report saying that the Prasar Bharati had not signed an MoU with it as required by autonomous bodies getting grants-in-aid by the government.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 05, 2018 11:46 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).