IAS officer pushed her through Information Department

DD’s attached Director broke all rules to promote her favourite anchor ‘Dr Sahiba’ in ‘Good Morning J&K’

Early Times Report

SRINAGAR, Sep 17: She calls herself ‘Dr’ but her name does not figure anywhere among hundreds of thousands of the MBBS, BDS, B V Sc, BUMS, Ph D or other such degree holders of the hundreds of Government-controlled or private colleges and universities in India. Medical Council of India has not registered her as a practitioner. She is not enrolled with any of the universities in India as a Ph D student. Still, an IAS officer of J&K cadre introduced and recommended her to officials of the state Information Department as ‘Dr Sahiba’ several years ago when he served as Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar.

Now on a Central deputation, this young bureaucrat from Bihar may be reading about her escapades in newspapers, courtesy Internet. “She is too dashing and a brilliant performer”, he is said to have described her while recommending her for major stage shows and high profile official functions. She, in fact, proved her mettle by anchoring a host of shows, including those of the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, two Governors and three Chief Ministers of the state, with full confidence and aplomb. Later, she grabbed better opportunities in the more glamorous and more rewarding Doordarshan.

Until she hogged headlines for a negative reason last week and was disowned by her promoters, she was extensively exploited by officials of Information Department and Doordarshan Kendra (DDK) Srinagar for their personal promotion. All complaints against her “out of way promotion” fell on deaf ears of the officials from Polo View in Srinagar to Mandi House in New Delhi.

In short span of 10 years, she hosted scores of official events and performed as a compere in more than 1,000 musical programmes of DDK Srinagar and DD Kashir. She also conducted hundreds of the Omar Abdullah government’s developmental and promotional progarmmes, including the flagship ‘Aks-e-Parvaaz’ in the last over three years. And the last, but not the least, recently removed Head of Programmes at DDK Srinagar, Shami Shair, flouted all rules, norms and standing orders of Prasar Bharti Broadcasting Corporation of India (PBBCI) and Directorate General of Doordarshan in booking her as anchor of DD’s daily morning show ‘Good Morning J&K’  without break since January 13^th this year.

None of the casually engaged artists---including news anchors, programme anchors and other hosts---can be booked under rules for more than 7 days a month or 89 days a calendar year in any circumstances. Though the detailed proposal register is said to be still in illegal custody of Mrs Shair, some official records at DDK Srinagar make it clear that ‘Dr Sahiba’ has appeared as the lead anchor of  ‘Good Morning J&K’ (GMJK) for all 30/31 days a month since January 13^th.

DG Doordarshan’s Order No: 3/2/98 P-1 (PT) Dated 2-9-2011, as issued by Mr Mahesh Yadav, Section Officer P-1 to all DD Kendras, defines the restriction on booking of casual artists and stringers in these words: “Kendra shall ensure that these persons may be engaged for specific programme-wise assignments only on casual basis and strictly should not be booked for more than seven days in a calendar month’.

Records are clear that ‘Dr Sahiba’, whose real name is ‘C’ but has appeared in her show with assumed names of ‘A’ and ‘B’, has been booked in ‘GMJK” without break since 13-1-2012. As against the ceiling of 89 days in 12 months, she has been booked for 241 days in less than 8 months at the fee of Rs 1,000 a day. While doing this, Head of Programmes at DDK Srinagar, Shami Shair, has removed not only a host of anchors but also minimum of three Producers of the morning show---Mufti Riyaz, Bashir Qadiri, GD Tahir---in the last eight months. Nobody from Programme Executive Coordination to Accounts Section and Administrative Office has raised an objection.

Mrs Shair did not respond to phone calls from Early Times. However, one of her former colleagues insisted that Madam had got “special approval” to this particular anchor’s continuous booking from a DDG at Mandi House. He refused to confirm reports that the same anchor’s contracts had been executed in different names and her fee had been enhanced from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 per booking without authorization.

“Question does not arise of more than seven booking a month. Nobody, including DG and CEO, is authorized to grant sanction to 23 extra bookings a month or enhancement of the anchor’s fee from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500”, a highly placed official at Directorate General of Doordarshan told Early Times. Not inclined to identify himself in media, he revealed that DD headquarters had already taken cognizance of the “glaring irregularities” in ‘GMJK’ and some sponsored flagship programmes of various Ministries. “We will soon examine all the allegations of irregularities. We are committed to streamline the system”, he asserted.

Inquiries revealed that the favoured anchor was not only booked on all-days-a-month basis in violation of the DG’s order but also given total control of the morning show and selection of guests and segments, pushing the designated Producer to a margin.  It was strongly resisted by the programmes’s founder producer, Mufti Riyaz, who launched ‘GMJK’ on December 1^st, 2011. As his concerns were ignored, he moved out without protest, fearing an out-station transfer, as managed by Mrs Shair with the help pf her patrons in Mandi House for the “recalcitrant” Qayoom Wadera and Zeeshan Fazil.

Mufti’s successor, Gulab-ud-din Tahir, too didn’t reconcile to being a rubber-stamp. According to insiders, he protested that Mrs Shair’s neighbour and favoured anchor was choosing guests and talents, as well as different segments of the hour-long show, on her own choice. It was pointed out to Mrs Shair that the lady anchor was getting her own cousin as singer of the beginning song for 27 to 28 days a month and just two, namely Gulzar Ahmad Ganai and Abdul Rashid Hafiz, from scores of other ‘A’ grade singers for remaining 2 or 3 days a month.

Sources said that Mufti, Tahir and few others had also objected to the scandalous way of stealing segments of the programme out of Mrs Shair’s old documentary films and programmes that had run repeatedly in the past. It was pointed out that worn out video clips from old Betacam tapes were being transferred to the modern format of DVC-Pro 50, edited and run as fresh segments.

As some people associated with ‘GMJK’ feared that the new morning show too would one day surface as a fraud and become subject of CBI inquiry like Dr Rafeeq Masoodi’s previous one, ‘Subhai Subhai’, Tahir moved out on “health grounds”. Third producer in the last 10 months, Shehnaz Hussain, made an abject surrender before the Madam as his return posting from DDK Leh to DDK Srinagar was “everything” for him.

“He was employed only to sign papers. Total control, including the proposal register, remained strictly in Mrs Shair’s own custody”, an insider revealed. According to him, men in Mandi House continuously supported Mrs Shair and ignored reports of irregularities in the morning show and flagship programmes. “They never ordered an inquiry”, said the official. He claimed that the DD officers had conveniently neutralized even the local CBI office.

[Read tomorrow: How all other anchors were sidelined and nobody listened to them from Srinagar to Mandi House]

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