Prasar Bharati Corporation CEO Jawhar Sircar has submitted his resignation four months ahead of the end of his tenure, which was to draw to a close in February 2017.
Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry sources confirmed the news. As per rules of the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, the CEO has to inform the administrative authority, which is the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, as he holds the office during the pleasure of the President of India.
The 1990 Prasar Bharati Act states: The chairman or any other member may resign his office by giving notice thereof in writing to the President of India and on such resignation being accepted, the chairman or other member shall be deemed to have vacated his office.
Mr. Sircar, it is learnt, has tendered his resignation to Secretary, I&B, Ajay Mittal. It is learnt that Mr. Sircar wishes to be relieved of his responsibilities by November 4.
Vocal intentionsFor some time now, Mr. Sircar has been quite vocal about his intention to resign. It is also learnt that at a recent farewell meeting of the Press Trust of India CEO M.K. Razdan on September 27, Mr. Sircar sounded out the Minister of State for I&B, Rajyavardhan Rathore, about his intent to step down.
Mr. Sircar refused to comment.
Mr. Sircar was appointed by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, though, according to his own admission and in an e-mail to Board members, he had written about how he had been “thrown into a hostile atmosphere in 2012”, which was during the tenure of I&B Minister Manish Tewari.
More recently, Mr. Sircar wanted to ensure the slot sale policy mechanism for Doordarshan, which was slipping steadily on the revenue and viewership front, but it was difficult to get everyone on board as there were many who had serious doubts about its effective implementation.
