DDK Srinagar in-house scam-III

Out of Rs 64 Cr claim, DD team favours release of only Rs 3 Cr

After Masoodi’s exit, Shami and her coterie got major payment of their own programmes released

“The Kendra has adopted the practice of making payment of dues to the Resource Persons after the programme is telecast even though the production work is completed years before. The practice does not seem to be sound and logical as the Resource Persons are made to unnecessary wait for years together for clearance of their dues since the programme could not be telecast due to faulty planning of the Kendra. This gives an indirect impression of the Government being a bad paymaster.  The responsibility squarely lies on the part of the authorities who approved the programmes and the Producers of Doordarshan who utilized the services / logistic support of the outside service providers without having funds in hand and that too without the concurrence of competent authority”, says the report of DD’s fact finding team

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Oct 2: After Dr Rafeeq Masoodi’s transfer to Doordarshan headquarters in New Delhi in July 2011, his successor Head of Programme (Hop) and incharge Director of Doordarshan Kendra (DDK) Srinagar, Shami Shair, persisted with production of her numerous programmes and serials---some of them under “Fixed Point Chart” and others certified as programmes telecast. Mrs Shair and a coterie of her subordinate Programme Officers managed to get maximum number of their own programmes telecast.

Insiders claim that same coterie of officials got large part of the payment of their programmes released from Accounts Section of DDK Srinagar. If they are to be believed, out of Rs 15 Crore funds since July 2011, over Rs 10 Crore is the payment made on account of the programmes produced by this coterie. Even as they still figure as the top liability creators, Mrs Shair, Nasir Mansoor and two retired Programme Executives, namely Rasheed Javed and Ghulam Mohiuddin, have managed to telecast most of their in-house programmes and get payments of many of their programmes released in 2011-12.

Masoodi, followed by Mrs Shair, adopted the practice of releasing payments only after telecast of the programmes---which was a flagrant violation of the DD manual which can not be changed without the approval of the Prasar Bharti Broadcasting Corporation of India. It was because of this practice that the programmes of less influential Programme Officers and Resource Persons (private facility providers) got heaped up and remained unpaid for years. As per the manual, DD makes payment on receiving and previewing the tapes of a programme throughout the country.

Irregularities in DDK Srinagar’s Tape Library are manifest by several indicators. While as tapes of the programmes of other Programme Officers’ are marked differently, those of Mrs Shair are marked as “Shami Tapes”.

The DD team which scrutinized the records in September 2012 has now observed in its report: “The Kendra has adopted the practice of making payment of dues to the above mentioned Resource Persons after the programme is telecast even though the production work is completed years before. The practice does not seem to be sound and logical as the Resource Persons are made to unnecessary wait for years together for clearance of their dues since the programme could not be telecast due to faulty planning of the Kendra. This gives an indirect impression of the Government being a bad paymaster.  The responsibility squarely lies on the part of the authorities who approved the programmes and the Producers of Doordarshan who utilized the services / logistic support of the outside service providers without having funds in hand and that too without the concurrence of competent authority. Those authorities at DDK Srinagar who conceived the idea of programme production headlessly and aimlessly without having adequate fund in hand and the required time slots for airing the programmes are the ones who should be blamed for and brought to justice”.

Former Director Shehzadi Simon, who has now retired, has claimed credit for clearing cumulative liabilities she inherited from her predecessors but those had never touched Rs 64.81 Cr---more than the amount involved in once infamous ‘Bofors Scam’ (Rs 64 Crore). Still, a large number of J&K artists, who participated in the programmes of her tenure, have not received payment to the tune of Rs 15.34 Lakhs. The DD team has observed that claims of the private facility providers of Mrs Simon’s tenure, amounting to Rs 2.83 Crore, are still pending with DDK Srinagar. While these remained unpaid, Masoodi and Shami released payments of their own programmes and raised further liability of over Rs 55 Crore.

The DD team has recommended in the recent report that out of the demands of Rs 9.32 Crore, as lying in Accounts Section of DD Srinagar, payment of only Rs 2.98 Crore should be released at this stage. That includes the payment of Rs 15.34 Lakhs to the artists engaged in the programmes of Mrs Simon’s tenure, besides Fixed Point Chart programmes on Panchayati Raj Institutions (Rs 9.46 Lakh) and Central Pollution (Rs 9.65 Lakh). Even these programmes are alleged to have been illegally outsourced to two favourite private producers on turn-key basis.

Break-up of the liability of Rs 9.32 Crore in respect of the programmes which have been already been telecast as lying in Accounts Section of DDK Srinagar. The DD team has recommended release of only Rs 2.98 Crore.

S.No.	Nature	Total liability     ( in Rupees)
1.	The Programmes which bills are lying in Accounts Section for payment	3,45,90,362/-
2.	Artist payment of programmes pertaining to the tenure of Ms. Shahzadi Simon, as Director	15,34,500/-
3.	Programmes produced by Smt. Kousar Parveen, PEX (telecast during 2009) the payment of which could not be released due to investigation by CBI.	85,75,000/-
4.	Programme Subhai Subhai the payment of which Could not be released due to investigation by CBI	14,00,000/-
5.	Programmes acquired under CBR scheme	55,00,000/-
6.	Programmes on Panchayati Raj	9,46,680/-
7.	Programme on Central Pollution	9,65,600/-
8.	Facility contracts of Programmes produced during the tenure Ms Shahzadi Simon as Director the contracts of which have not yet been deposited with Accounts Section  tenure Ms Shahzadi Simon as Director the contracts of which have not been deposited with Accounts Section	2,83,76,000/-
9.	Other Programmes whose contracts/bills have not been Deposited with Accounts Section	1,13,85,400/-
TOTAL		9,32,73,542/-

A former CEO of PB, namely B S Lali, and a former DG of DD are said to have ignored all complaints from the victimized DDK Srinagar officials and private producers as both were allegedly “hand-in-glove” with Masoodi. Even after one of them was dismissed in the matter of a dubious time slot allotment of Commonwealth Games and another retired, a number of senior officials in Mandi House, PTI Building and Shastri Bhawan continued their unlimited support first to Masoodi and later to Mrs Shair.

One-odd disciplinary action that has been taken in the whole dubious process of loot-and-scoot by Directorate General of Doordarshan is suspension of Administrative Officer and Drawing & Disbursing Officer of DDK Srinagar, Mr Beg, days before his retirement earlier this year. Another junior official, namely Jeelani, was also placed under suspension but later reinstated and posted in Radio Kashmir. According to insiders, they had released payment of a couple of programme serials, allegedly after taking bribes from some smart facility providers, without taking into confidence incharge Director DDK Srinagar and a DDG at Mandi House.

In-house programmes of influential DDK Programme Officers and private facility providers (Resource Persons) which have been already telecast and are pending for payment in Accounts Section of DDK Srinagar.

S.No	Name of Producer	Title of programme	Year of telecast	Amount (in Rupees)	Remarks
1.	Rajiv Sadhu	Loli Aalav	2010	1,85,710/-	File Not available
2.	-do-	Lolik Aalav	2010 & 2011	4,51,000/-
3.	-do-	Aalav	2011	5,18,000/-
4.	-do-	Sangarmal	2011	1,78,000/-
5.	-do-	Rehtay Chap	2011	3,63,000/-
6.	-do-	Ye Lainey Lekhnam	2011	4,47,250/-
7.	-do-	Kashmir Quiz	2011	3,97,500/-
8.	-do-	Kashir Saaz Te Mousiqi	2011	5,34,500/-
9.	-do-	Sundermal	2011	3.75,000/-
10.	-do-	Poshwan	2010 & 2011	8,65,000/-
11.	-do-	Kashir Meeras	2011	4,60,000./-	File not available
12	Nasir Mansoor	Ufaq Ufaq	2010 & 2011	16,57,080/-
13.	-do-	Sanglab	2011	7,05,000/-
14.	Gh.Mohi ud din	Tote Guv Kul	2011	23.60,550/-
15.	-do-	Roud Kya Bakey	2010	6,69,400/-
16.	-do-	Rum Gayam Sheshas	2011	17,45,000/-
17.	-do-	Ghar Se Bollywood Tak, Happy New Year& Bandpather	2011	82,000/-
18.	Javed Bukhari	Chandanhar	2011	1,09,000/-	Proposal Register not available to verify actual approved cost.
19.	-do-	Zamanik Rang	2011	1,86,000/-	File and proposal register not traced
20.	-do-	Sangarmal	2011	2,40,000/-
21.	-do-	Kehkashan	2011	1,67,500/-	File and Proposal Register not available
22.	-do-	Toofan	2011	16,41,150/-
23.	-do-	Sitarey Jammu Key	2011	7,80,000/-	Proposal Register is not available to verify the actual approved cost.
24.	-do-	Lole Naar	2011	3,23,000/-	-do-
25.	Haleema Parveen	Milchar	2011	4,03,000/-	Proposal Register not produced to verify the actual approved cost.
26.	-do-	Anhaar	2011	5,63,500/-
27.	-do-	Rang Zindagey hind	2011	24,81,000/-
28.	-do-	Meeth Aalav	2011	10,74,000/-
29.	-do-	Quiz Competition	2011	1,30,000/-
30.	B.A.Wani	Career Counseling	2011	3,96,000/-
31.	Mushtaq Khan	Dying Culture	2011	2,00,000/-
32.	Satish Dhar	Afsana	2011	9,00,000/-	Concerned file and Proposal Register not produced to verify the actual approved cost.
33.	-do-	Saaz Te Awaz	2010 & 2011	9,50,000/-
34.	-do-	Yaqeen	2011	20,61,022/-
35.	Mufti Reyaz	Pahari People	2011	1,40,000/-
36.	-do-	Poshwan	2011	3,20,250/-
37.	-do-	Nagme Souz	2011	5,99,340/-
38.	-do-	Bahare Gazal	2011	4,13,000/-
39.	-do-	Gul Bahar	2011	1,50,000/-
40.	Rashid Javed	Khwaab Sarai	2011	9,44,700/-
41.	-do-	Mizraab	2011	3,00,000/-	Duplicate. Also figuring at Sl. No. 57 above.
42.	-do-	Soz-e-Dhoroun	2011	3,70,500/-
43.	-do-	Kathan Chu Maney	2011	3,30,000/-
44.	-do-	Soz-e-Yindraz I	2010	1,61,750/-
45.	-do-	Sani Wari hind Rang	2011	3,61,720/-
46.	-do-	Soz-e-Yindraz II	2011	5,45,840/-
47.	-do-	Sonzal I & II	2011	4,30,000/-
48.	M.Akram	Heemal	2010 & 2011	3,12,000/-
49.	Shami Shair	Zu Chu Te Jahan Chu	2011	8,52,000/-	Concerned file and Proposal Register not produced to verify the actual approved cost.
50.	-do-	Documentary	2011	2,88,000/-
51.	Sudesh Bakshi	Sada Bahar	2011	2,45,000/-

52.	-do-	Kinara Mil Gaya Hota	2011	10.65,550/-
53.	-do-	Sohni Dharti	2011	4,98,500/-
54.	-do-	Mittey Key Rang	2010	1,13,000/-
55.	Nisar Budgami	Zutnizool	2011	4,62,000/-
56.	Gulrez Qureshi	Weth Rooz Pakan	2011	3,25,000/-
57.	-do-	Mizrab	2011	1,57,000/-	Duplicate. Also figuring at Sl. No. 41 above.
58.	B.A.Dar	Ye Kyouth Muell	2010	3,15,300/-
59.	-do-	Musical Album	2011	2,55,700/-
Total				3,45,55,362/-

[Read tomorrow: How CBI officials brushed DDK Srinagar investigations under the carpet].