Prasar Bharati delay spells trouble at DD

At present there is an overwhelming number of 8,000 DD staff employed in various kendras and relay centres nationwide which have not gone through even basic training in their respective areas of work and are awaiting decision by the newly constituted corporation in this regard.

The bulk of untrained DD staff ranging from producers, cameramen, and other technicians has increased to such an extent that DD’s only production training centre in the country – Film and Television Institute of India in Pune – is finding it extremely difficult to impart basic training to such a large number.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Iftekhar Ahmed, dean (Television) FTII conceded that the problem of untrained DD staff had acquired serious proportions as the institute could do little besides its totally packed courses throughout the year.

FTII imparts training to DD staff involved in the production work through its various courses of which 12-week courses for freshers are conducted twice a year while rest of the time courses in specialised categories of production like light, camera and set designing are organised.

“Last year, making best of efforts, 275 DD staffers could be imparted training at FTII. Given the fact that FTII is the only institute for imparting training in television production for DD, it has to deal with the problem of training more number of DD staffers and at the same time maintaining the high standards of the training imparted,” said Ahmed.

Attributing the overwhelming number of untrained DD staff to the new production centres Ahmed said, “Since 1990, 40 new production centres of DD have come up in the country of which a size-able number is in North-East. As a result the production staff has also increased tremendously while the training facility – FTII- remains only one.”

The Information and Broadcast Ministry and now the Prasar Bharati Corporation have been apprised of the training situation at FTII. It has been demanded that the television production training facility be expanded to solve the problem of untrained DD staff, added Ahmed.

It may be recalled that a year back a committee headed by K N Pandey was formed to look into this problem and to monitor the training of DD staff in liasion with FTII. Now with the Prasar Bharati awaiting final clearance, the concrete decision to solve the problem is not expected in the immediate future.

Not only this, the institute is facing another problem of shortage of expert staff in imparting training for its various courses. There are few takers for the jobs in the institute with its existing salary structure. “Why should an expert technician evince keen interest in a job at the institute for which he is getting much more paid elsewhere,” argues a technician in the institute.

It may be noted that the Estimates Committee – constituted under chairmanship of Jaswant Singh, now the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, had recommended higher pay structure for the faculty.

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