Govt decides to fill 1,150 posts in All India Radio and Doordarshan

-Indianexpress:
New Delhi: In good news for Prasar Bharati, the government has approved filling up of 1,150 vacant posts in the programming and technical departments of Doordarshan and All India Radio. There has been no recruitment in the Prasar Bharati for the last 15 years, resulting in a severe staff shortage that has crippled its functioning.

According to Prasar Bharati, a total of 14,222 posts out of the total sanctioned staff strength of 48,022 have been lying vacant. A proposal by the Prasar Bharati to set up a separate recruitment board for itself has been under inter-ministerial consultation for the last two years. Sources said the proposal is in the final stage of clearance and a green signal can be expected anytime.

Last year, the GoM examining various issues related to functioning of Prasar Bharati looked into the staff shortage and recommended that 3,452 essential category posts should be filled up immediately. A majority of these posts belong to Group B & C category. Prasar Bharati said vacancies in Group B & C categories would be filled up by the Staff Selection Commission while the remaining would be filled up by the Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board. “The recruitment process is expected to be over by middle of next year,” a Prasar Bharati statement said.

The recruitment is for 1,150 assistant station directors, assistant directors, engineering assistants, programme executives, transmission executives, technicians, camera persons, production assistants and administrative staff. Official figures show that 8,469 posts at AIR and 5,753 posts with Doordarshan have been lying vacant.

“This is the first major infusion of new blood into Doordarshan and All India Radio after a period of 15 long years,” Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar said. “These were critical and essential posts, which had lapsed and needed to be revived. A number of our stations were without engineers and programming staff, which had affected their operations,” Brig. (Retd) V A M Hussain, Member (Personnel), Prasar Bharati said.