Apathetic and short-sighted

It’s time India’s public broadcaster Doordarshan woke up from its slumber

Akash Bisht Delhi

Controversy and Prasar Bharti  go hand in hand and the two are in the news again. In its latest report, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has castigated Prasar Bharti for non-judicious expenditure, unused equipment and undue monetary concessions to a TV producer. CAG observed that the national telecaster Doordarshan (DD) spent Rs 436 million of the government’s money on procuring the equipment which lies unused till today. It accused Prasar Bharti for giving “undue concessions” to the producer of TV serial Shaktiman, and pulled it up for  failing to “appoint operational and maintenance staff for nine low power transmission systems” and “premature” procurement of equipments. Today, when private operators are cashing in on the immense potential of the Indian viewer market, DD continues to putrefy in the bureaucratic muddlemaze, hijacked by babus with inflated egos but no sense of running a channel. 

In past numerous reports have criticised DD for the way it functions but their suggestions have not been heeded. “DD behaves just like any other government organisation and does not care much about these losses. Many such reports have criticised DD in the past few years but DD has continuously ignored these reports,” recalls Shiv Kumar Sharma, former Director General, Doordarshan. DD has often been hailed as an ailing organisation that has failed to revive itself to attain financial viability to meet market challenges.

One grave area of concern for DD is the recovery process of its outstanding dues from producers. This amount has sky rocketed to Rs 29,68,792,318. Many eminent names from the television industry: BAG Films, Balaji Telefilms, Film City, Film Craft, Lintas, McCann Erickson, Mudra Communications, among others feature in the defaulters list of DD. Sharma explains, “DD would have been commercially viable if they would have collected all the outstanding dues but there is hardly anything that is being done.” Certain government departments are also among defaulters and do not adhere to their commitment. Hence, DD keeps losing revenue and finds difficult to invest in high quality programmes such as those that are being aired by private operators.

DD claims that it possesses the best of machinery and studios available but its programmes prove otherwise. “The problem is the time period involved in acquisition of these machines because by the time they reach DD they become outdated. Once acquired it again takes them few years to start functioning,” explainsclarifies Sharma. According to the CAG report, DD has failed to commission studios set up at six stations between March 2001 and March 2005 at a cost of Rs 22.55 crore even 12 to 48 months after completion. They were set up at Patiala, Kozhikode, Madurai, Warangal, Coimbatore and Rajouri. Navin Kumar, Director General, Doordarshan, reports “There have been no recruitments in the last 10 years,” as CAG also spotted that DD failed to appoint operational and maintenance staff for nine low-power TV transmission systems built between March 2002 and September 2004 which led to a loss of Rs 6.74 crore.  This might very well contribute to the reason that DD lacks passion, dedication and has reached a stage of stagnation where it continuously fails to perform. Sharma insists “The workforce of DD just compares its salaries with private channels but doesn’t admire their professionalism.”