Almost half of the 219 All India Radio stations are functioning without a station director and other senior management staff because of the absence of recruitment and promotion guidelines for Prasar Bharati in the Prasar Bharati Act, 1997, which governs the autonomous body.

And to make matters worse, about 500 of the total workforce of about 22,000 employees retire each year only to continue with AIR on ad hoc basis, awaiting implementation of provisions for pension.

"As a result, many AIR stations are running with staff who are over 70 years old," a senior AIR official said, adding, "Retired employees are shuttling between Prasar Bharati, the finance ministry and the information and broadcasting ministry. They have no option but to continue at the same post in AIR."

There are reportedly about 40-50 district-level AIR stations that are being operated by an ageing workforce.

To tackle the situation, the government is toying with the idea of introducing a voluntary retirement scheme, the financial implications of which are being studied by the group of ministers (GoM) constituted to look into the restructuring of Prasar Bharati.

Commenting on the prevailing situation, Prasar Bharati CEO BS Lalli said various committees had been formed to look into the recruitment, promotion and other employee related issues.

"Currently, there are 192 categories of employment in Prasar Bharati. Besides the GoM that is looking into the issues, I have also constituted a committee to bring harmony in the final report of all the other committees. We are hoping for an early solution," he said.

The senior-level appointments in both AIR and Doordarshan are done by the information and broadcasting ministry for a tenure of three to five years.

Taking a serious view on the matter, a recent Supreme Court order asked Prasar Bharati to come out with a clear policy on recruitment, promotion and transfer of employees by August.

Various employee unions of AIR and Doordarshan have gone to court over issues of transfer and financial benefits for the existing employees.