NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati, which has not had any senior-level recruitment since it came into being in September 1997, has finally advertised for filling 1166 posts for programme executives, production assistants and duty officers.

The notice in Employment News says ‘Prasar Bharti notifies Combined Recruitment for the Post of Programme Executive and Transmission Executive Examination’ and the last date for applications is 19 April.

The posts will be filled after interviews by the staff selection committee.

Interestingly, this figure is higher than the announcement of 1150 posts cleared by the government late last year.

In AIR, there are 1362 vacancies in Group A, 1,584 in Group B, 4863 in Group C and 2272 in group D.

In Doordarshan, 724 posts are vacant in Group A, 1140 in Group B, 2871 in Group C, and 1451 in Group D.

All India Radio and Doordarshan have total staff strength of 33,800 against a total sanctioned strength of 48,022, leaving a gap of 14222 posts.

The most critically affected areas are the Programme Wing and the News Services Division (AIR)/DD News.

The committee for Information Technology late last year regretted that Prasar Bharati had failed to live up to the assurance given by then Prasar Bharati chief executive officer that the Recruitment Boards for Prasar Bharati would be set up by 31 March 2011.

It is understood that the Union Public Service Commission and SSC had both refused to select for a non-Governmental organization, thus creating a new problem for the Ministry/Prasar Bharati.

The proposal for setting up a Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board was approved by Prasar Bharati Board on 21 July 2010 and discussed in the Ministry and a final proposal was referred to the Department of Personnel and Training on 15 February 2011. DOP&T concurred with the proposal in June 2011 and the comments of the Department of Expenditure (DOE) were also received on 28 September 2011.

The DOE had requested that a separate proposal be formulated for creation of posts for the secretariat of Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board and also requested for drafting of agreement containing terms and conditions of the members of the Board. This had been done and the proposal sent to DoE in February 2012 and then to Law Ministry.