In the news

Jan. 31: Irregularities in commissioning programmes and corruption at various levels have swung the spotlight on Silchar Doordarshan.

M.K. Raina Ratnakar, the deputy director-general of Doordarshan, has been asked by the information and broadcasting ministry to look into allegations of irregularities in commissioning television programmes to either organisations or individuals.

Ratnakar arrived in the south Assam town today and will be in town for five days. Sources in the Doordarshan centre said he would peruse records pertaining to all programmes that were commissioned during the past three years.

Allegations of corruption and nepotism by a coterie of officials at Silchar Doordarshan have long been doing the rounds. The coterie has allegedly discriminated against several producers of news capsules and programmes in regional languages.

The director-general of Doordarshan instituted the probe after Union information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi was informed about the allegations of discrimination against deserving producers.

Silchar Doordarshan spends over Rs 80 lakh annually on commissioning programmes, some of them meant to be telecast from other centres in the Northeast, too.

Corruption charges have also been hurled against a few officials in the higher echelons of Doordarshan at both the regional and national levels.

Sailesh Thakur, director of Silchar Doordarshan, said most of the complaints were unjustified.

“During my tenure of about three years, all programmes have been commissioned in accordance with the rules and norms outlined by Mandi House, the headquarters of Doordarshan,”said Thakur.

Thakur said 103 producers submitted capsules of proposed programmes to a panel of Doordarshan officials, led by R. Sailo, this year and 53 of them were selected on merit.

The All Cachar and Karimganj Students’ Association staged demonstrations against the alleged scam during Sailo’s visit.