Prasar Bharati’s Chief Executive Officer Sashi Shekhar Vempati on Sunday said the public broadcaster had released Rs 208 crore from its reserves on February 28 to pay its employees.

In another tweet, he said news reports about Prasar Bharati employees not receiving their salaries were inaccurate and an attempt to create panic.

On March 1, The Wire had reported that Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani had not released any money to Prasar Bharati since December 2017 after the broadcaster refused to pay Rs 2.92 crore as fees to a private company. The Centre has dismissed the news report and claimed that “some elements” had launched a “deliberate, sinister and motivated campaign to wrongfully tarnish” its image.

The Prasar Bharti board had earlier rejected the ministry’s two proposals regarding appointments to the board and the public broadcaster’s news operations. Accepting them would “amount to infringing [its] autonomy”, the board had said.