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NEW
DELHI: Following assurances that they will continue as employees
of the Union government, employees of Prasar Bharati today
agreed to defer their agitation in support of demands which
include the repeal and winding up of the public broadcaster.
After
a late evening meeting with Information and Broadcasting Ministry
Secretary Asha Swarup, National Federation of Akashvani and
Doordarshan Employees Secretary General Kulbhushan Bhatia
told indiantelevision.com that a Committee to be headed by
Swarup was being set up to go into the demands of the employees.
Asked
if any deadline had been given by the NFADE, he said the Committee
will give its report by 30 November. Any future action will
be decided depending on the recommendations of the Committee.
The Committee will include representatives of the employees
as well, he said.
Apart
from a delegation of the employees headed by NFADE Chairman
Anilkumar S., the meeting was attended by senior officials
of the Ministry and Prasar Bharati.
Earlier,
the employees of All India Radio and Doordarshan had announced
their decision to go on mass leave tomorrow after their talks
with the government failed here last night.
The
employees, who are on deputation from various government departments,
have been demanding the same facilities and service benefits
as enjoyed by them when they were with their parent departments.
In a statement, the NFADE - an umbrella body of 21 associations
representing about 38,000 employees – had said that all
the members have submitted their leave applications with the
department heads.
The
agitation has been on for several months now. As a first step,
gate meetings were held during lunch time at the Doordarshan
headquarters in Mandi House in Delhi and in the Kendras in
Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata in mid-July. Later, similar gate
meetings were held from August two at more than 1000 stations
of All India Radio and Doordarshan all over the country if
the government does not respond favourably to their demands.
Anilkumar
told indiantelevision.com that the employees want repeal of
the Prasar Bharati Act itself as they argue that it has become
irrelevant with the advent of so many private channels. The
Federation also feels that faced with a large number of private
broadcasters, the country needs a national broadcaster under
the government and not an autonomous public broadcaster, particular
since any public broadcaster cannot survive without the support
of the government.
The
Act was passed by Parliament in 1990, but notified only from
September 1997 after the Supreme Court in February 1995 ruled
that airwaves were public property and could not be monopolised.
The
judgment as a result of a petition by the Cricket Association
of Bengal against the public broadcaster came at a time when
Doordarshan and All India Radio were the most dominant broadcasters
in the country.
A
survey conducted about four months earlier showed that 98
per cent of the employees in Delhi and Bangalore want to return
to Government. The opinion poll conducted by Akashdarshan
Backward Classes Employees Association (ABCEA) on May Day
said the employees cited ‘extreme dissatisfaction’
with their working conditions, uncertainty and poor career
prospects as reasons for their wanting to return to government
service. A total of 664 programme staff including 94 from
Bangalore responded to the opinion poll. The views of some
retired employees of the public broadcaster were also elicited.
The
Supreme Court had directed the Government and Prasar Bharati
to take a decision about the fate of the 40,000-odd employees
by early August but later allowed more time till October.
Following the order of the apex Court in early February, a
Committee of Officers had been set up to go into the issue,
and has since presented its report to the Group of Ministers
attached to Prasar Bharati and headed by Home Minister Shivraj
Patil.
The
GoM is understood to have committed to give a final report
by early October. Apart from the Home and Information and
Broadcasting Minister, the GoM includes the Ministers for
Personnel, Finance and Rural Development.
Section
11 of the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 is clear that an option
would be given to the employees to opt to remain with the
broadcaster or go back to the Government.
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