DG: ‘Delinquent DDK officials may lose their job’

Action likely after reply of 19 officials to show-cause notice

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Oct 5: Director General of Doordarshan, Tripurari Sharan, today made it clear that officials involved in Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar’s multi-crore productions scandal may lose their job on account of their omissions and commissions in Srinagar in the last few years. He said that DD and Prasar Bharti Broadcasting Corporation of India would initiate action against 19 delinquent officials immediately after receiving their reply to the show-cause notice served on them last fortnight.

Authoritative sources revealed to Early Times that DG DD took a 90-minute-long meeting with DDK Srinagar officials inside the station with the main agenda of streamlining the production system. Joint Secretary Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, DDG Engineering and Head of the Station, Aftab Ahmad, Director News, Bashir Malik, DDP and incumbent Head of Programme, Qayoom Wadera and Programme Executives of DDK Srinagar, besides a representative from DDK Jammu (Satish Dhar) participated in the meeting.

Sources said that deliberating on the huge liability created by a number of officials, including the removed HOPs Dr Rafeeq Masoodi and Shami Shair, DG made it clear that all the delinquent officials would have to face serious consequences of their involvement in the unprecedented mess of approving proposals of known and unknown ‘resource persons’ and getting the same dumped and selectively telecast in a scandalous manner. ‘Aap logoon par jald gaaz girne wali hai’ (Delinquent among you will soon be hit by lightning), he told the accused officials.

According to sources, DG made it clear that a former Director of DDK Srinagar and others involved in the multi-crore approval and production scandal would face termination of service as Chief Vigilance Officer of DD had already initiated departmental and disciplinary action against them. He said that show-cause notices had already been served on 19 officials and asked them all to furnish their written responses and explanations within the stipulated timeline. “We know what we have to do to clear this mess”, he said.

Sources present in the meeting said that the 1985 batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, Mr Sharan called most of the tainted officials by name and asked them to explain as to why they had exceeded all limits in approving, producing and acquiring programmes from outsiders over and above the station’s normal PPPS budget. It became clear that as against the normal annual budget of Rs 3.5 Crore, DDK Srinagar officials had procured nearly 15,000 programme episodes in just two years, raising liability of over Rs 30 Crores.

According to widespread allegations in Kashmir, officials approving and processing these proposals have favoured hundreds of known and unknown private producers, in total violation of DD’s codes, norms and procedures, after charging “advance commission” of 10 to 20 percent from almost all of them. As against the new format of DVC Pro-50, almost all of these programmes have been shot on the obsolete Beta Cam format and only transferred to the new format for editing. While a large number of these “approved” programmes were still under production or post-production processes, those of influential persons have been partly put on air.

DG said in the meeting that a delegation of private producers had met with Minister I&B, Mrs. Ambika Soni, and other top officials of I&B, Prasar Bharti and DD on Thursday. He said the authorities were in favour of releasing the balance payments before the forthcoming festival of Eid-ul-Azha but made it clear that the payment of only those backlog programmes would be released which would be found “already telecast” and genuine on other parameters like format, quality and identification of the payees. These are estimated to be between Rs 2.98 Crore (as calculated by a 2-member team DD headquarters) and Rs 8.00 Crore (as calculated by other senior DD officials).

Sources said that DG called the accused officials by name and asked them to explain how they had put up and processed these proposals in violation of all norms and procedures. To begin with, he asked for Rajiv Sadhu and Javed Bukhari. He was told that both had gone to Srinagar Airport to receive members of Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Information & Broadcasting. When he asked for Rasheed Javed, Ghulam Mohiuddin and Zeeshan Fazil, he was told that all the three officials had retired from service in the last one year. When he called, Kousar Parveen, he was told that she was now posted in DDK Chandigarh.

Haleema Parveen and Sudesh Bakshi claimed that they had simply acted on the directions of then HOP and Director DDK Srinagar, Dr Masoodi. He asked them to explain why the programmes supposed to be in-house and produced fully within the station with DDK’s own infrastructure and facilities, had been outsourced to outsiders, creating huge financial liabilities on DD. None of the respondents had any convincing reply. DG finally asked them to furnish their replies within the stipulated time.

Asked why they had not produced proposal registers to the two-member DD team, some of the Programme Executives pleaded that same were lying in custody of CBI or Vigilance wing of DD.

‘Kejriwal’s charges baseless’

Significantly, DG of DD announced that daily news bulletin in Bodhi language would start from DDK Leh from October 20^th. He asked Director News in J&K, Bashir Malik, to make necessary arrangements and ensure that the news bulletin from DDK Leh went on air from October 20^th.

Later, in the afternoon, CEO of Prasar Bharti, Jawahar Sircar, too arrived in. Minister I&B, Ambika Soni, who is camping here since yesterday along with Parliamentary Consultative Committee on I&B, is scheduled to return to New Delhi early in the morning on Saturday. She addressed a hurriedly news conference at Hotel Taj by Vivanta this evening, only to dismiss charges of quid pro quo between Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and DLF as “absurd, rubbish and unfounded”.

In her absence, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, along with Rajya Sabha member and JKPCC chief, Saifuddin Soz, and President of Youth Congress (on behalf of Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi), would inaugurate Radio Kashmir Srinagar’s newly installed 10-kw FM transmission at the AIR’s local station here tomorrow. FM-2 service would cover entire Kashmir valley.

END

DDK Srinagar in-house scam-V

CBI probes, bunglings go together in DDK

Attachment, transfer of guilty is the maximum punishment so far

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Oct 4: Inspite of a nexus between some officials of the two organisations of Government of India, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed challan in two FIRs against Doordarshan officials in Jammu and Kashmir. But the investigations and the prosecutions have failed to have an impact as the maximum punishment of the accused DD officials has been a brief spell of outside transfer or an attachment for eyewash.

Working on a detailed complaint, CBI carried out raids and seized records, including thousands of tapes, in some rooms of Doordarshan Kendra (DDK) Srinagar in 2009. A preliminary inquiry established large scale irregularities in acquisition of programmes from a group of private producers by Programme Officer of the station’s morning show ‘Subhai Subhai’, namely Ghulam Hassan Dar. Case FIR No: 02/A/2009/CBI/Sgr Dated 14-01-2009 was registered against then Director DDK Srinagar, Dr Rafeeq Masoodi, Programme Executive Ghulam Hassan Dar besides a group of the beneficiary private producers.

After completion of the initial process of investigation, raids were conducted on DDK Srinagar on 18-05-2009 and 10-06-2009. CBI sleuths collected substantial evidence of the criminal involvement of a number of DDK officials. It was established with material evidences that incharge Programme Officer Mr Dar had procured over 18,000 segments from particular private producers on written instructions of Dr Masoodi as Head of Programme and Director DDK Srinagar, issued on small paper slips. All these tapes were found to have been procured clandestinely without any notification or process of competition.

It was calculated that the segments would suffice for over four years. During the investigation, almost the entire group of private producers was dropped. Challan was finally filed in the court of Special Judge Anti-Corruption Srinagar on 17-07-2010 against Programme Officer, Ghulam Hassan Dar, retired Floor Manager Bashir Ahmad Mir and just one private producer, Shahid Shabir.

Even as payment of over Rs 20 Lakh was found to have been released and contracts for claims of Rs 14 Lakh were found lying in Accounts Section of DDK Srinagar, CBI’s Srinagar office concluded that HOP Dr Masoodi was involved but had not substantial criminal culpability. However, sources insist that Dr Masoodi’s name was removed after CBI’s Special Director in New Delhi did not agree to recommendation of prosecution. He proposed only ‘Departmental Action’ against the delinquent official.

Thereafter, ACB Srinagar recommended “Departmental Action” against the official and a communication went to Prasar Bharti’s Chief Vigilance Officer, Mahesh Bhat. Since the accused official enjoyed high political clout, no departmental or disciplinary action was initiated against him for about a year. On the contrary, Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, N N Vohra, presented the prestigious State Award to Dr Masoodi for being “outstanding mediaperson” in presence of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in April 2011. All media reports against this award going to a CBI-tainted DD official were ignored.

In the next two months, Dr Masoodi was finally shifted to DD headquarters but with the face-saving order of designating him as DDG Programme. His patrons in Mandi House and Prasar Bharti allowed him to retain his Srinagar posting for over two months. In this period, he is alleged to have approved hundreds of in-house programme proposals of known and unknown “Resource Persons”, thereby raising liability of Rs 52 Crore in 2009-11 period---over and above the station’s normal PPPS budget---without any authority, competence and availability of funds.

Dr Masoodi was finally placed under suspension in July 2012. He has reportedly challenged the departmental action against him in a Central Administrative Tribunal in Chandigarh.

While the CBI investigation in case FIR No: o2 of 2009 was still underway, it received substantial evidence of one Kousar Parveen having got scores of musical series approved, produced and telecast in a completely fraudulent manner. Consequently, after a preliminary verification, ACB Srinagar filed case FIR No: 04 of 2010 against Programme Officer (Programme Executive) Kousar Parveen and other officials of DDK Srinagar. Yet again, HOP and Director DDK Srinagar, who had approved almost all the fraudulently proposed and produced musical programmes, was kept off the hook.

During raids on the residence of Ms Kousar Parveen at Iqbal Colony, Sonwar, CBI seized material evidences, including tapes, documents and bank passbooks.

Raids on the house of private producer, Noor Mohammad Qazi, at Fair Bank Colony, Rawalpora, resulted in recovery and seizure of a heap of passbooks of the accounts of Yes Bank, J&K State Cooperative Bank and State Bank of India, branch Rajbagh. One of these accounts was found to have been opened in the name of Qazi’s brother, Qazi Zahoor. CBI learned during thorough investigation that Qazi Zahoor’s account had been opened and operated by Noor Mohammad Qazi and DDK Srinagar officials without his knowledge and involvement.

Rest of the accounts were found operating in the names of ‘Noor Mohammad Qazi’, ‘Noor Ahmad Qazi’, ‘Qazi Noor’ and ‘Nooruddin Qazi’, all by his brother. It was noticed that DDK Srinagar officials had fraudulently drawn payment of Rs 25 Lakh through the same fake accounts which had been opened with the help of a fake Ration Card. He was arrested and detained for 13 days till he got released on bail.

Surprisingly, neither the accused Programme Executive, Kousar Parveen, nor her husband, Rafeeq Ahmad Malik, who was a cameraman with DDK Srinagar, were arrested or detained.

Investigating Officer at ACB Srinagar, Inspector Deedar Singh, who is on deputation with CBI from CID Wing of J&K Police, completed the investigation and filed challan in the court of Special Judge Anti-Corruption Srinagar. Again Prasar Bharti or DD did not initiate any action against the accused Programme Executive. It was finally on a communication from CBI Srinagar that Mandi House shifted Kousar Parveen to DDK Chandigarh in accordance to the guidelines of Central Vigilance Commission. She is continuing her posting at Chandigarh.

Substantial payment of Kousar Parveen’s fraudulently operated in-house musical programmes has been drawn during Dr Masoodi’s tenure. However, claims to the tune of Rs 85,75,000 of her programmes are still lying in Accounts Section of DDK Srinagar. She has been neither attached nor placed under suspension. According to insiders, former CEO of Prasar Bharti, B S Lalli, who himself landed in a criminal case of CBI later, provided full support to Masoodi and his favourite officials at DDK Srinagar.

Previously, CBI had investigated and challaned a high profile case involving then Controller of Programmes at Kashir Channel (DD Kashir, Mandi House) T.K. Das, Programme Executive Mumtaz Beg and some Kashmiri private producers who had allegedly collected bribes from a large number of private producers in Srinagar and Jammu and allotted them commissioned programmes. Das and Beg were arrested and lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. However, years later, CBI was defeated in the court.

Notwithstanding CBI’s highly credible investigation in the Pathribal fake encounter and alleged rape-cum-murder of two young women in Shopian, the agency has few takers to its current investigation in DDK Srinagar’s Rs 64 Crore in-house approvals and productions scandal which has Dr Rafeeq Masoodi and Mrs Shami Shair, incumbent Director of DDK Srinagar, Qayoom Wadera, and over a dozen others as the key actors. Among them all, only Masoodi is under suspension and all others, who are still in service, are continuing their postings.

[Concluded]

END

Minister, I&B top brass in Srinagar

Early Times Report

SRINAGAR, Oct 4: Taking cognizance of malfunctioning and large scale corruption at Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar and DD’s Kashir Channel, entire top brass of the union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Prasar Bharti Broadcasting Corporation of India, Doordarshan and All India Radio has arrived in Srinagar alongwith Parliament’s Consultative Committee on I&B.

Even as Chief Executive Officer, Prasar Bharti, Mr Jawahar Sircar, will be reaching here on Friday, over a dozen Members of Parliament, who form Consultative Committee on I&B reached here for three-day visit today. During their stay in Srinagar, MPs and officials of I&B, PB, DD and AIR would review functioning of different stations of DD and AIR besides others departments of I&B in J&K.

Those who arrived in today included Minister for I&B, Mrs. Ambika Soni, Secretary I&B, Udhay Kumar Verma, two Joint Secretaries of I&B, DG Doordarshan Tripurari Sharan, DG AIR, LD Mandloi, ADG Engineering AIR, DK Khanna, and other officials. The group of MPS witnessed the proceedings in J&K Legislative Assembly for about one hour.

Later, Mrs Soni took a meeting with a delegation of over 50 private producers, script writers, singers, drama artists and other talents working with DDK Srinagar and DD Kashir. Secretary I&B, DGs of DD and AIR besides the members of Consultative Committee were present in the high level meeting at Hotel Taj By Vivanta.

Sources said that the delegation explained irregularities and corrupt practices of DDK Srinagar officials, demanded their transfer and legal action, including a credible CBI investigation, into their omissions and commissions in the last few years. They presented a set of newspaper reports to the Minister and implored her to clear the mess at DDK Srinagar. They also demanded release of their payments. They pointed out that the lately removed Director had drawn payment of her 32 programmes but those of scores of private producers had been piled up and subjected to investigations.

They demanded thorough investigations into productions on flagship programmes of Government of India and complained that almost all the payees of these programmes were relatives of a couple of DD officials.

Sources said that Mrs. Ambika Soni would hold a high level meeting with subordinate officers over the agenda of “paid news” and DAVP functioning tomorrow. She would review functioning of DD, AIR, PIB, Song and Drama Division and Field Publicity wing. She is scheduled to return to New Delhi early in the morning on Saturday.

Sources said that in her absence, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, would now inaugurate AIR’s new 10 kw FM transmission and programme service at 1100 hours on Saturday. Rajya Sabha member and President of J&K Pradesh Congress Committee, Prof Saifuddin Soz, would also be present on the occasion.

END

DDK Srinagar in-house scam—[IV]

CBI officials too bribed by DDK Srinagar bosses

Some FIRs challaned; some complaints hushed up in lieu of money, programmes; SP, Inspector under scanner

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Oct 3: Even as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was twice assigned the task of investigating large scale bunglings in Doordarshan Kendra (DDK) Srinagar and it has submitted challan in both FIRs in an anti-corruption court in Srinagar, some officers of the country’s premier investigating agency have allegedly hushed up complaints against two Directors of the station “in exchange for cash and programmes”. One among them, holding the rank of Superintendent of Police, was recently removed from ACB Srinagar and attached to the agency’s Chandigarh office, days before his retirement from service.

While pursuing investigation into Rs 64 Crore ‘in-house productions scam’ of DDK Srinagar, Early Times hit upon a starling disclosure from well-placed authoritative sources. Documentary evidence in possession of this newspaper reveals that on the basis of specific inputs, a Srinagar-based Inspector of the agency compiled an information and submitted it to the head of ACB Srinagar, Kundan Lal Raina, in October 2011.

Contents of the complaint said that then Head of Programmes (HOP) and incharge Director DDK Srinagar, Mrs. Shami Shair, had been fraudulently drawing full approved budget of Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 on account of producing each episode of ‘Bharat Nirman’ series. According to the official note submitted to the SP, Mrs. Shair, who was herself Programme Officer of the series, used to get the programme produced for total of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 through a retired Programme Executive of DDK Srinagar, Ghulam Nabi Dar.

According to the complaint, even after his retirement, Dar continued to get the programme produced while manipulating DDK’s cameras, editing suits and other infrastructure during the course of shooting and editing of other programmes of the Fixed Point Chart. The information complained that being incharge of the series since 2009, Mrs. Shair and Mr Dar had already swindled an amount of Rs 40 Lakh to Rs 50 Lakh on account of producing the series ‘Bharat Nirman’.

Segments of the Prime Minister’s flagship programme ‘Bharat Nirman’, which is still continuing through a dubious channel, contain awareness on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Indira Awas Yojana, Rural Electrification and Panchayati Raj Institutions.

It was pointed out in the information that payment on account of producing this programme series was being drawn in some 40 names which were mostly fake with fake bank accounts. A number of payees were allegedly the HOP’s relatives and acquaintances.

The information added that with the advantage of the fraudulently drawn proceeds, Mrs. Shair had acquired assets disproportionate to her known sources of income. It made specific reference to one of her properties allegedly raised in recent past. According to the information, she purchased eight Kanals of land, close to Srinagar-Leh highway, at Nunnar in Ganderbal district for Rs 24 Lakhs and thereafter built a house on the premises.

The SP, in turn, assigned the preliminary investigation to another Inspector of ACB Srinagar, who was from J&K Police and has been on deputation with CBI for the last six years.

Within next few days, the SP as well as the Inspector, established contact with then incharge Director of DDK Srinagar. They completely hushed up the matter in mysterious conditions. Both were put under scanner on the orders of Special Director CBI on charges of being “hand-in-glove” with some accused officials and subverting preliminary inquiries allegedly in consideration for pecuniary benefits. Within months, the agency top brass, according to sources, received credible information that DDK Srinagar officials had managed to hush up the investigation with cash payment of Rs 3 Lakh besides in-house programmes worth Rs 5 Lakh given to two particular persons named by the two CBI officials.

Earlier in 2012, one of J&K’s most prominent private producers and Chairman of United Television Professionals Forum, Zamir Ashai, submitted a written complaint to SP CBI Srinagar with the allegation that some top officials of DDK Srinagar were involved in swindling sizable funds of Government of India. When the complainant enquired about the status of his complaint two months later, SP told him over telephone that CBI “does not investigate such petty matters”. “We take up cases where Rs 100 Crore or Rs 200 Crore is involved”, he reportedly told the complainant.

While as a secret inquiry is still underway in the conduct of the Inspector, the SP was removed from Srinagar and attached to the agency’s Chandigarh office on September 15^th, 2012. He joined there and retired from service within days on September 30^th. Sources said that CBI was looking into a heap of similar complaints against the retired SP.

Attempts to get the retired SP’s reaction failed as he could not be reached over telephone. Sources said that a prominent Kashmiri singer, known for his liaison with the former CBI official, was likely to be questioned to ascertain identity of the two persons who acted as “facility providers” for the programmes given to the two officials by DDK Srinagar.

On orders of CBI Directorate in New Delhi, SP incharge of ACB Jammu, Dr Arman Deep Singh, who is widely known for his honesty, integrity and competence, was additionally placed as head of ACB Srinagar. A team under his command and surveillance is now investigating an assortment of complaints with regard to the conduct of DDK Srinagar officials, including two former incharge Directors---Dr Rafeeq Masoodi and Shami Shair---in the Rs 64 Crore in-house productions scam that has been analyzed in detail last month by a two-member team from Directorate General of Doordarshan.

The prominent Kashmiri singer, along with his wife, is already facing serious charges in a fraudulently made production of patriotic songs at DD’s Central Production Centre (CPC) in New Delhi. While investigating an FIR filed in New Delhi, CBI has observed that the Kashmiri singer had been roped in by a Kashmiri DD official, then posted in CPC. Both drew an amount of Rs 12 Lakh on account of producing Kashmiri patriotic songs. They claimed that some female singers had been brought to Delhi all the way from Srinagar for making the production at CPC. The patriotic songs were telecast on Republic day and Independence Day.

Investigating a complaint, CBI learned that a group of different Kashmiri female singers had been filmed for a separately paid song series in Srinagar and none of them had ever traveled to Delhi for this purpose. Investigating Officer, Inspector Subhash Bhalla, and his team observed during the investigation that payment cheques amounting to lakhs of Rupees had been drawn in the name of a Srinagar-based housewife, Shagufta Shams, who had no knowledge or connection to Doordarshan.

An account was opened in the name of Shagufta Shams fraudulently by the Kashmiri singer and his wife at a branch of J&K Bank in Srinagar. While as the prominent Kashmiri singer, who also works as a private producer, introduced and identified the account holder (Shagufta Shams), his wife’s photographs and signatures were pasted on the bank’s registers. It became clear during CBI’s investigation that the CPC payments had been deposited in the same account that was actually operated by the singer’s wife, Ayesha, by way of fraud.

The CBI team learned in Srinagar that actual Shagufta Shams had delivered a baby just 10 days before the “Date of Shooting” at CPC and she had never traveled to Delhi for the shooting of a ‘Rouf’ musical series, made for the Republic Day. CBI New Delhi has completed the investigation, established the charges and filed challan in a court in the union capital.

[To be continued…..]

END

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].