NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu has constituted a six-member committee for the merger of Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV with a view to cut costs and reduce extra spending on coverage of parliamentary proceedings.Officials said the panel will examine all relevant issues pertaining to the merger, including proposing an appropriate name for the new integrated channel.The Rajya Sabha secretariat issued an order on November 7, notifying a committee comprising Prasar Bharati chairman A Surya Prakash; A Rao, additional secretary to RS secretariat; Ganpati Bhatt of Lok Sabha secretariat; joint secretary Shikha Darbari, who is financial advisor to RS TV; and CEOs of RS TV and LS TV Manoj Kumar Pandey and Aashish Joshi respectively, to “work out the modalities and prepare the guidelines for pooling resources, manpower and technology for merger of Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV”.Officials said the committee has been appointed after the RS chairman had extensive consultations with the Lok Sabha Speaker.The committee will decide if live proceedings of both houses should be continued, and the feasibility of doing so as one integrated channel to ensure appropriate coverage of both houses. “If not feasible, what is the best way to avail the best out of both channels keeping in view the parliament functions for only 70 days in a year,” said the order.It said the committee will work on 14 broad tasks, mainly to form a working outline for the integrated channel, review the existing content and examine the need for news bulletins on the new channel, its standard operating procedure and editorial hierarchies, along with rationalisation of workforce, technical and production teams, budgetary provisions, required transfers, location of studios and news rooms.Before the LS TV was launched in 2006, when Somnath Chatterjee was the Speaker, private television channels aired select Parliament proceedings. In 2011, RS TV was launched under the chairmanship of Hamid Ansari, with a budget of Rs 100 crore and a budgetary allocation of 500 people.The decision to merge the channels launched during the UPA rule has not gone down well with the opposition. Former information and broadcasting minister Anand Sharma of the Congress said “the government wants to control the TV channels directly by this merger, and by excluding the opposition”. “It is very clear that they are trying to monopolise the media coverage of Parliament. It is ominous for democracy, and shows a mindset of control,” he said.People aware of the matter said the merger process is being directly monitored by top officials in the government, which has been particular about seeking accountability in government expenditure. Two months ago, the I&B ministry, which is in charge of the government’s communication, was asked to go slow on hiring private public relations managers and watch the spending on advertising on TV and print platforms.Employees fear that the merger of LS TV and RS TV may lead to trimming of the workforce. Besides, there are concerns over who would manage the integrated channel. At present, LS TV and RS TV are managed by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively.Unlike LS TV, which shows only live telecast of proceedings in the Lok Sabha, occasionally covering important events such as the GST ceremony in Parliament, RS TV is a full-fledged channel with news bulletins and panel discussions. “Many of the LS TV consultants work with very limited resources. The budget of the LS TV was less than Rs 20 crore and it had merely 106 employees, compared to the over 200 hired by RS TV,” said an official.In 2015, the Comptroller and Auditor General had reported violations and unaccounted expenditure in RS TV between 2010 and 2014, charges that were refuted by those who had headed the channel. Subsequently, the government, under Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, ordered a probe into the allegations and put in place a committee to sort out matters.Former I&B secretary Bimal Julka said the merger of the channels was a good move in the direction of “synergising resources to cover Parliament well”. “As one unit, there will be a lot of accountability, which is important in public institutions,” he said.However, others said a merger would need more thought and clarity. According to a former I&B ministry official, in 2005, a proposal to launch Sansad TV to cover parliamentary proceedings was mooted when Prasar Bharti was asked to run it at a cost of over Rs 135 crore with manpower of 258, but consultations with leaders from other political parties led to the idea of LS TV, at a much lower cost.“Both RS and LS TV provide analytical and accurate coverage, hence they should be allowed to operate as they are,” said the former official, requesting not to be identified. “TRP (a measure of viewership) is not an issue for either of them, nor is revenue. Our country’s expenditure on Parliament is anyway much less than in many other countries,” he said