Mrinal Pande set to head Prasar Bharati

The government has cleared well known journalist Mrinal Pande's name for the post of Prasar Bharati chairperson, a month after the previous chairman Arun Bhatnagar's resignation was accepted by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. Though Pande's name is yet to be announced officially, she has been approved by the selection committee led by Vice President Hamid Ansari, a ministry official said in New Delhi on Saturday. A formal announcement could be made later in the day. The post was lying vacant since the past one month, after the government on December 18 had accepted Bhatnagar'sresignation.

Pande had last year stepped down as chief editor of Hindi daily Hindustan after a nine-year tenure, saying she wanted to concentrate on her writing career. Bhatnagar, a former bureaucrat had resigned in May last year amid altercation between Prasar Bharati CEO B S Lalli and board members of the public broadcaster. Meanwhile the government has also selected veteran film makers Shyam Benegal and Muzaffar Ali as part-time members of Prasar Bharati's board along with journalist Suman Dubey,official sources said. T

hese persons come in place of R N Bisaria, Sunil Dang and Mamata Shankar, who had recently left the board aftertheir terms expired. Prasar Bharati's board consists of eight part-time members and three full time members.