NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati has been asked by a Parliamentary Standing Committee to formulate a ‘comprehensive proposal on FMisation at the earliest’ for seeking Cabinet approval so that it can be approved by the Government.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, which looks into issues relating to Information and Broadcasting said Prasar Bharati ‘needs to move swiftly with its FMisation initiative to bring the pubcaster ‘in the revival track’.

The Ministry informed the Committee that it is for Prasar Bharati to take a call on FMisation. It had conveyed to Prasar Bharati that the issue can be addressed at the time of revision in the 12th Plan which may get approved by Prasar Bharati Board and the final scheme proposal may be forwarded to the Ministry for approval by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

Meanwhile, the Committee said it had been informed that the e-auction of Phase III of FM Radio was expected to be completed by the end of April or May.

The Committee was told that the Government had approved the e-Auction of the 1st batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities on 16 January and C1 India had been selected as the e-auctioneer through global tender; and Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) had been issued on 2 March.

The Committee had been apprised that applications are being examined and a Committee has been constituted with Secretaries of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Department of Telecommunications and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for indicating and approving the list of successful bidders.

The Ministry during evidence stated that the procedure of auction for the existing vacant 69 channels will be transparent and that the next phase of auctioning will follow after the completion of the first phase.

The Committee felt that commissioning of additional FM radios will bring added revenue to the Government exchequer and improve the programme content by providing a wider choice to the listeners through carriage of non-news items such as sports, cultural events, traffic and weather information, public announcements, etc.

While welcoming the initiative of the Government, the Committee recommended to the Ministry to take all necessary steps to ensure that auctioning takes place in a fair and transparent manner, as scheduled.