13-member board of Prasar Bharati stares at record 9 vacancies

NEW DELHI: Come February 8, Prasar Bharati, India’s public broadcaster, will have an unprecedented nine vacancies on its 13-member board, which is the key body entrusted with taking all decisions related to the general superintendence, direction and management of the affairs of the pubcaster.
The board, headed by the chairman, comprises one executive member who is the pubcaster’s CEO, a member finance, a member personnel, six part-time members, a representative of the ministry of information and broadcasting and director generals of All India Radio and Doordarshan as ex-officio members.
While Prasar Bharati’s incumbent chairman, A Surya Prakash, is set to retire on February 8, the posts of director generals of Doordarshan and AIR have been lying vacant since their last incumbents, Supriya Sahu and Shehryar, superannuated, respectively. Of the six part-time members of the board, only one is currently occupied by film actor Kajol.
Even the position of member personnel is currently vacant. Effective this week, the Prasar Bharati board will only have four members — its CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati, member finance Rajeev Singh, I&B ministry’s nominee, Ali Rizvi, and part-time member Kajol.
While the pubcaster has already advertised vacancies for the posts of director generals of AIR and Doordarshan, finding a replacement for Prakash is unlikely soon.