NEW DELHI: Even as the Information and Broadcasting Ministry today denied that internal professions are denied regular appointment to the post of Director-General in Doordarshan and All India Radio, a look at the past twenty years or so shows that almost all the heads of DD or AIR were people who belonged either to the Indian Administrative Service or the Indian Information Service.
The appointment of Leeladhar Mandloi as Director General of DD for the third time is also expected to be temporary as he has been asked to hold charge until further orders. Noreen Naqvi who is also a professional and is presently Director-General of AIR was also given charge â€?until further orders’. They are both professionals, officers of the Indian Broadcasting (Programme) Service.
Interestingly, the Delhi High Court had three years earlier held that Mandloi was the senior-most and should therefore be confirmed as DG.
Mandloi succeeded Aruna Sharma, an IAS officer who has been reverted to her home cadre in Madhya Pradesh. Previous DGs of Doordarshan have been Anil Baijal, Bhaskar Ghose, K S Sarma, Rathikant Basu, R R Shah, Naveen Kumar, and S Y Quraishi, who have all been IAS officers.
Minister of State for I and B C M Jatua today told Parliament that the appointment of the DGs is under the Prasar Bharati Director General Recruitment Rules 2001 for both AIR and DD.
Interestingly, DD had advertised in January this year (with 1 February as last date for application) for the post of DG seeking Mass Communications and Public Administration as qualifications.
But the advertisement further said the posts were for â€?Officers of All India Services or Central Services Group A… holding analogous post on regular basis or with three years’ regular service in the Pay Band-4 Rs. 37400-67000 with grade pay Rs.10,000 or equivalent and empanelled as Joint Secretary to the Government of India with three years’ regular service and having experience in Media or Mass Communication or Public Administration.’
This also effectively bars persons who have risen by virtue of their experience in DD or AIR but are not members of either the IAS, the Indian Information Service, or the Indian Broadcasting (P) Service.