Prasar Bharati chairman resigns

Prasar Bharati chairman Arun Bhatnagar, who has been at loggerheads with the public broadcaster's CEO B S Lalli, has resigned because he was "dissatisfied" with the functioning of the board.

Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer who was appointed chairman one year ago for a three-year tenure, has written to the Prime Minister saying that in recent months "it has become increasingly difficult for me to address the proper functioning of the board".

The rift in the 10-member board began about three months ago over minutes of a meeting held in January with Lalli taking exception to the draft minutes circulated by Bhatnagar which he termed as "inaccurate, slanted and having extraneous material".

Subsequently, some members of a divided board leveled allegations against the CEO and the matter had reached the Delhi High Court through a PIL being heard by it now.

In an affidavit before the Court, Bhatnagar sought an independent, comprehensive and time-bound inquiry into the state of affairs in the public broadcaster.

Bhatnagar had first tendered his resignation in March but the government had not taken a decision on it. Now he has sent the resignation to the Prime Minister saying, that he was "compelled to quit well before the expiry of his term on April 30, 2011".

He had succeeded  M V Kamath, who had to leave after government issued an ordinance to reduce the term of the chairman from five to three years and set the age limit at 70. Kamath was 85.