The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) has denied that plans are afoot to shutter Prasar Bharati News Service and scotched rumours about the departure of the unit’s head.

“No Sir. Prasar Bharati News Service (PBNS) is a part of (the) digital platform of Prasar Bharati setup to strengthen its digital presence,” Minister for Information & Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said yesterday in reply to a question from a fellow parliamentarian in Rajya Sabha (Upper House).

TMC MP Jawahar Sircar had asked a series of questions on PBNS, including whether it was a fact that the government had plans to shut down Prasar Bharati News Service, and whether its head had resigned and several of its employees were assigned elsewhere.

According to the Indian national broadcaster Prasar Bharati’s website, PBNS and Digital Platform, the digital arm of the pubcaster, is committed for dissemination of news and other information of public interest in multimedia format to the masses through its news services and social media operations. The momentum to ramp up PBNS started in 2020.

Thakur further clarified to Sircar, a former CEO of Prasar Bharati, that the head of PBNS was “engaged on contract basis and has resigned”, while the contractual staff in Prasar Bharati is deployed as per the organizational requirements.

“During the years 2018-19 to 2021-22, PBNS was in inception stage and its expenditure was met from the consolidated budget of Prasar Bharati Secretariat. The provisional expenditure of PBNS for the year 2022-23 was Rs. 5.14 crore,” the Minister said.

The total earnings of Prasar Bharati from all digital platforms, including PBNS, from 2018-19 to 2022-23 was Rs. 10.58 crore.

To another part of Sircar’s query on payments made out to professional news agencies like Hindustan Samachar, PTI and ANI in the last three years, Thakur informed that the agencies were paid Rs. 6.72 crore by PBNS.

“The Budget Estimate for 2023-24 for payment to the news agencies by Prasar Bharati is Rs. 3.00 crore,” the Minister further added.