NEW DELHI: The letter by Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar seeking greater powers for the public broadcaster in postings of Indian Information Service (IIS) officers was not written in the context of the recent order placing Doordarshan News DG SM Khan on compulsory wait, sources in the pubcaster told indiantelevision.com.

In fact, the letter was written on the morning of 8 August, whereas the action relating to Khan came late in the evening of the same day.

Furthermore, the sources said this was an issue raised even earlier by Sircar and was only reiteration of an earlier view.

It was pointed out that the issues relating to autonomy had already been listed in the Sam Pitroda report. Earlier, there were media reports that the letter to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry was linked to issues such as the allegedly "deliberately edited" pre-poll interview of Narendra Modi.

The letter said Prasar Bharati has in the past two and a half years made several suggestions for posting and transfer of IIS officers which are still pending decision by the Government.

Sircar suggested bifurcation by the Ministry of the work on a pro-rata basis and after which, postings of IIS officers to PB could be decided by the Prasar Bharati Board and orders issued, only after informing Ministry.

"Since we are completely in the dark about career details of the officers, which are readily available in the Ministry's files, it would be appropriate to share these with Prasar Bharati,” reads the letter.

Sircar wrote that Prasar Bharati can be held responsible only if it monitors News Division and added that then IIS officers can also accept the fact that they have to work in tandem with Prasar Bharati.

Sircar reiterated his proposal for a Professional Electronic Media Cadre within the IIS that could be developed by Prasar Bharati, the sources said.