NEW DELHI: Almost three years after the decision was taken in this regard, the Union Cabinet today decided to pursue in Parliament the amendment to the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990. The amendment gives deemed status to all Central Government employees working in the public broadcaster prior to 5 October 2007.
The decision in this regard had been taken in January 2009 and an amendment Bill had been introduced in the Rajya Sabha in August 2010.
The cabinet also approved some official amendments by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in the Bill and pursue the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill 2010 for its enactment.
Related Post
The Cabinet also approved the action taken on the recommendations made in the 18th Report on “Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill, 2010” of the Standing Committee on Information Technology.
The amendment relating to the deemed status will mean amendment to section 11(2) of the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill 2010 by the addition of the words “and until their retirement” at the end of the section. This will make the status of the employees recruited between 23 November 1997 and 5 October 2007, making their deemed deputation to Prasar Bharati till their retirement absolutely clear and unambiguous.
The Bill is for making amendments to the existing section 11 of the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990, regarding “Transfer of service of existing employees to the Corporation”, which deals with the transfer of services of employees to Prasar Bharati upon its creation as a Corporation in the year 1997.
The decision by the cabinet in January 2009 had ended more than one decade of uncertainty.
Employees recruited from 6 October 2007 will be deemed to be employees of the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) and subject to rules drawn up by the Board of the public broadcaster.
This decision will benefit a total of around 38,000 employees who will get pension, government health and accommodation and other benefits.
Though the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act was passed in June 1990, it was notified as a statutory corporation only from November 1997. Section 11 of the Act had given employees the option to decide whether they wanted to join the Corporation or go back to the government, but no action was taken as the rules for various categories of employees have not been drawn up in the past twelve years.
Prasar Bharati sources told indiantelevision.com that until April 2000, the employees had been deemed as full government employees and their status was changed to ‘deemed employees’ from 1 April 2000.
