The previous incumbent might have left under a cloud, but that’s not stopping various top bureaucrats from trying to get their time in the sun as the the head of Doordarshan.
The board of Prasar Bharati, which operates Doordarshan and All India Radio, ,has apparently received close to a dozen application for the top Doordarshan job.
This is despite the charges of corruption and misuse of authority levelled against the previous
Doordarshan director general (DG). The board is set to meet on Tuesday and likely to discuss the various applications before it, sources said.
The government had transferred the previous Doordarshan DG Aruna Sharma to her parent Madhya Pradesh cadre after being named by the high-level Shunglu committee report on the Commonwealth Games broadcast deal. The committee had identified Sharma and now suspended Prasar Bharati chief executive BS Lalli as officials whose actions on the CWG broadcast deal had allegedly caused a loss to the government. The officials have, however, denied the allegations.
Notwithstanding the disrepute brought to the top post in Doordarshan, now the tussle is between two officials from within Doordarshan ? L Mandloi and Ashok Jailkhani ? who are vying for the top post. Both Jailkhani and Mandloi are deputy DG (programme) in Doordarshan.
However, Mandloi is currently in charge of Doordarshan till the Prasar Bharati board makes an official appointment. Mandloi was also DG Doordarshan before Sharma was appointed as a full-time DG in March 2009. However, back then Jailkhani had opposed Sharma’s appointment on grounds of faulty selection process, among others.
Also running for the top job are officers from the Indian Information Service (IIS) and the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
?At least two applications have come from senior IIS officers while five to six applications are from senior IAS officers,? a source in Doordarshan said.