Doordarshan not hiring hands for CWG, says Soni

As Doordarshan goes into the high-definition mode for the Commonwealth Games, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni Monday said no new recruitments will be made in the national network for the event.

Admitting that there are large number of vacancies in Doordarshan, Soni said the recruitment board has been constituted by the government to fill up the vacancies.

There are 5,097 vacancies but they are not for the Commonwealth Games, Doordarshan did not feel the need for recruit for the Games, Soni said replying to the supplementaries in the Rajya Sabha Monday.

The minister said that a Group of Ministers has been set up to look into the vacancies and its report will be submitted by the end of this month.

She added that training is being given to the present staff for the Games.

Doordarshan has trained 300 personnel for Commonwealth Games and a large number of people are being deployed for doing the Rights Holding Broadcaster duties for exclusive coverage of the Games within the country, Soni said.

The minister said that a committee, of which she and union Law Minister Veerappa Moily are members, is looking into various issues related to the high definition telecast of the Games.

There was an issue of extra light coming in some stadiums, the Organising Committee has assured that it will cover all those areas from where unnecessary light or sunlight is coming in, Soni said.

Some members had pointed out that sunlight in the stadiums may effect the quality of high definition telecast.

Doordarshan will go into high definition mode for the first time for the telecast of the Commonwealth Games Oct 3-14.