The Hindu : National : Information Ministry to review directive to downsize units

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 19, 2004

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National

Information Ministry to review directive to downsize units

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 18. The Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has decided to "revisit and review" the Committee of Secretaries' (COS) April 28 directive to close down the Directorate of Field Publicity (DFP) and Song & Drama Division, and downsize three other media units under its charge, as recommended by the Expenditure Reforms Commission (ERC), which had found 5,603 posts redundant in the Ministry.

Amid speculations of an imminent downsizing exercise, the new I&B Secretary, Navin Chawla, told The Hindu that he was in the process of looking at all units within the Ministry with a "fresh mind." The recommendations of the ERC — in circulation for well over three years now — were to have been implemented by July 31, 2001.

At its meeting on April 28, the COS had decided that the "I&B Ministry shall implement the ERC's recommendations. The I&B Secretary shall quickly propose a roadmap for the implementation of the ERC recommendations. The DFP and Song & Drama Division shall be closed down and Photo Division, Publications Division and Films Division shall be downsized substantially."

While setting aside the I&B Ministry's arguments for "rightsizing" DFP and Song & Drama Division to prevent their closure, the COS, however, deferred a decision on the disinvestment of the two public sector organisations under the Ministry — the National Films Division Corporation and Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd.

Now, the Ministry has decided to keep on hold the COS' directive and go in for a complete review of its set-up and explore avenues for synergising the functioning of the dozen media units under its charge.

The ERC had suggested that seven media units — Films Division, Children's Film Society, Directorate of Film Festivals, Photo Division, DFP, Publications Division, and Song and Drama Division — should be wound up.

Though the previous regime's bid to rightsize these units had been turned down by COS, I&B officials are hopeful of exploiting the new political climate to prevent their closure by synergising them.

A case in point being the Children's Film Society (an autonomous organisation of the Ministry) and Films Division (a media unit) which function as separate entities from one building in Mumbai.

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