Sushma for rightsizing, not retrenchment in I-B

Sushma for rightsizing, not retrenchment in I-B
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, MARCH 2: Two days after Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha spoke of downsizing several ministries, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj favoured ``rightsizing'' her ministry but maintained there was no case for retrenchment.

Swaraj spoke of ``revamping, redeploying and redefining of responsibilities and re-energising''the I-B Ministry that is one of the six ministries for which the Expenditure Reforms Commission has recommended downsizing.

The minister told reporters that the commission, which had suggested drastic pruning of the staff in the ministry and Prasar Bharati, has made the recommendations by considering the whole ministry as ``one unit''.

She said she had already held consultations with the heads of various media units in her ministry on the issue. Asked whether she would follow the Finance Minister's example -- who had reduced four secretary-level posts in his ministry on the recommendations of the commission -- she replied in the negative saying hers was a ``small'' ministry having one secretary and three joint secretaries unlike the Finance Ministry that has 36 joint secretaries.

When told that Zee TV and Sony TV had less than 1,000 staffers compared with 35,000 of Prasar Bharati, she said: ``Zee and Sony are mere channels while DD and AIR have a network of hundreds of transmitters and several stations.''

Besides, she said the social objective of Prasar Bharati ``cannot be overlooked while looking at other success stories... We cannot look at just the profit motive.''

Replying to another question, she said her ministry had not taken any decision on the Shunu Sen Committee report that has also suggested downsizing Prasar Bharati.