Ex Organiser editor in panel for part-time Prasar Bh directors

 Former editor of RSS' Organiser Seshadri Chari has been included in a panel for selection to four posts of part-time directors on Prasar Bharati Board.

Months after it prepared a list of seven names including actor Kajol for appointment to the posts, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has now readied an additional list with six more names including that of Chari.

In the new list, apart from Chari, the ministry is learnt to have included names of actor Vikram Gokhle, academician Vartika Nanda, film writer Prakash Kapadia and two other eminent persons.

Senior officials said that the ministry was compelled to come up with six more names after it was felt in a preliminary meeting that the choice of candidates for the four positions as part-time directors needed to be widened.

A three-member committee comprising Vice President M Hamid Ansari, Press Council of India Chairman C K Prasad and Information and Broadcasting secretary Bimal Julka will make the selection, they said.

However, the move to send more names also means that there will be further delay in the appointment to the Prasar Bharati Board as these candidates will need security clearance first, officials said.

In the first list, the ministry had sent names of seven eminent personalities for the positions lying vacant for around a year now. Apart from Kajol, the other names in the first list included media advisor to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ashok Tandon, businessman Sunil Alagh, singer Anup Jalota and journalists Mihaz Merchant and Shashi Shekhar.

As per the Prasar Bharati Act, the public broadcaster should have six-part time members on its Board.