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Thursday 22 December 2011

Prasar bharati Bill gets Parliament nod


The Bill for amending the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 to treating all government officers and employees recruited by All India Radio or Doordarshan as on 5 October 2007 to be on 'deemed deputation' with effect from April 2000 till the time of their retirement received Parliamentary approval with the Lok Sabha passing it.
The Bill, which has already been cleared by the Rajya Sabha, will now go to the President for her assent and will then be notified as an Act.
The Bill for amending Section 11 and some other provisions of the Act was moved by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting CM Jatua was passed unanimously, though members were agitated over the slow progress in filling vacant posts and the failure to recognise unions and associations of employees.
The Bill will affect a majority of the 38,000 employees in Prasar Bharati by assuring them of their pension and other benefits. Until 2000, the employees had been deemed as full government employees and their status was changed to 'deemed employees' from 1 April 2000.
Earlier this month, the Rajya Sabha had also passed three official amendments in the Bill following acceptance of the action taken on the recommendations made in the Eighteenth Report on "Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill, 2010" of the Standing Committee on Information Technology.
(Subsequently, Rule 37A of the CCS Pension Rules will also be amended through gazette notification.)

 Intervening in the discussion, I&B Minister Ambika Soni assured the House that a comprehensive bill to cure all that was wrong with Prasar Bharati would be brought shortly.
She said any association of employees desirous of recognition had to fulfill the criteria laid by the Department of Personnel and Training in its rules of 1993. She said there were over 21 associations for the approximately 122 categories of employees but none had applied under the 1993 Rules for recognition. At the same time, she gave to the house a note listing the number of times she had met the employees to hear their grievances despite their not being recognised.

Friday 9 December 2011

RAJYASABHA PASSES BILL TO AMEND PRASARBHARATI ACT

The Rajya Sabha today passed the bill for amending the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 for treating all government officers and employees recruited by All India Radio or Doordarshan as on 5 October 2007 to be on 'deemed deputation' with effect from April 2000 till the time of their retirement.
The Bill for amending Section 11 and some other provisions of the Act was moved by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting CM Jatua and passed unanimously.
Members also passed three official amendments in the Bill following acceptance of the action taken on the recommendations made in the Eighteenth Report on "Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill, 2010" of the Standing Committee on Information Technology.
Subsequently, Rule 37A of the CCS Pension Rules will also be amended through gazette notification.
The employees working under deputation will get all facilities at par with Central government employees.
The Bill had been introduced in September, 20 months after the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Prasar Bharati had decided in January last year, ending an uncertainty that had prevailed for a decade. This decision will benefit around 38,000 employees.