New Delhi: Pulling up the Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting for its "casual attitude" in
fulfilling assurances towards policy decisions, the
Parliamentary panel on Government Assurances today expressed
its "anguish" over it.
The panel, headed by CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member
A Vijayaraghavan which tabled its report in the Upper House
earlier in the day, said in its observation it "is anguished
to note the casual attitude of the Ministry in fulfilling the
assurance (related to opening up of the broadcasting sector)
and provide extraneous information in the replies".
Referring to the assurance given by the ministry to an
unstarred question asked on April 30, 2008, where on being
asked whether it plans to open up the broadcasting sector for
increasing its reach, the ministry had said that it had sought
opinion of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on
allowing state governments and government enterprises into the
sector.
The panel after scrutinising the implementation of the
report, observed that "the ministry did not provide any
information about the said part of the question and therefore
the assurance was treated as part fulfilled and referred back
to the ministry".
On the issue of conditional access system (CAS), on
which, while replying to an unstarred question on April 16,
2008 in Parliament the ministry had said it plans to implement
its extension, the panel observed "that the ministry had not
provided any information on finalisation of extension of CAS.
The assurance was treated as part fulfilled and the ministry
was directed to furnish the revised implementation statement.
PTI
