Employees salaries held after Prasar Bharti chief 'defies' Smriti Irani

Smriti Irani

The government on Friday described as 'defamatory' and 'sinister' news report that said the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has withheld funds meant for paying salaries to employees of Prasar Bharati over an alleged stand-off between the two.

"The misinformation is based on ill-will and incorrect appreciation with half-baked facts and is tantamount to causing loss of reputation of the government in public eyes. It is patently defamatory in nature," the I&B ministry said in a statement in response to reports in the media, including the news website 'The Wire'.

The Wire quoted Prasar Bharati Chairman A Surya Prakash as saying that the public broadcaster had to pay staff salaries for January and February out of its contingency funds, as the ministry had not released the funds. "If the standoff continued, the broadcaster will run out of money by April," The Wire said. It said the standoff was the result of differences between I&B Minister Smriti Irani and Prasar Bharati.

The government statement said Prasar Bharati is bound by the General Financial Rules of the Government of India since it receives grants-in aid from the government. It said that any autonomous organisation that receives grant-in-aid must sign an MoU with the ministry describing physical and financial targets with timelines for activities to be done by utilising the money. "For the record, irrespective of repeated reminders from the ministry, no MoU has been signed by Prasar Bharati," the statement said.

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