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NEW
DELHI: Employees of All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan
are back on the path of agitation to protect their present
working conditions, barely six months after they had postponed
the agitation following the setting up of a committee headed
by I&B ministry secretary Asha Swarup.
The
committee had been set up in late September to go into the
report of the group of ministers (GoM) headed by Home Minister
Shivraj Patil which had earlier recommended that the 40,000-odd
employees should continue to enjoy the benefits of pension
and allowances that they presently received as government
servants on deemed deputation to Prasar Bharati.
The employees under the aegis of the National Federation of
Akashvani and Doordarshan Employees - an umbrella body of
21 associations representing about 38,000 employees –
held a three-day relay hunger strike from 26 March in all
state capitals to demand either scrapping of the public service
broadcaster and go back to being a government media unit,
or make suitable amendments in the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting
Corporation of India) Act, 1990 to ensure they continue getting
the benefits they now enjoy.
The employees will march from the DD headquarters in Delhi
to the Parliament on 16 April in support of their demands.
Addressing a gate meeting of the employees in Delhi, Congress
MP Harish Rawat said Prasar Bharati Act had become irrelevant
with the advent of so many news channels. Furthermore, he
said that since it was evident from the experience of last
decade that the public service broadcaster cannot survive
without support of the government, the time had come to bring
an amendment in the Act to protect AIR and DD and their employees.
Meanwhile, federation chairman Anilkumar S told indiantelevision.com
that the committee headed by Swarup, of which the employees’
representatives are also members, had supported the view of
the GoM in its second meeting on 18 March.
He
said that the committee had accepted the view of the federation
that the basic structure of Prasar Bharati would not change
if amendments were made relating to the employees in only
nine of the 35 sections in the Prasar Bharati Act.
Denying any dilution in its demands, he reiterated that the
Federation was for scrapping of Prasar Bharati, but it had
suggested a via media just in case their demand was not accepted.
In early October, I&B minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi in
a chat with newspersons had stated that the employees would
continue to be treated as "on deputation from the government"
with full facilities available for employees of the central
government. He was speaking after a meeting of the GoM, which,
besides Patil and himself, includes finance minister P Chidambaram,
culture minister Ambika Soni and communications minister A
Raja.
The Act was passed by the 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 judgement as a result of a petition by the Cricket Association
of Bengal against the public broadcaster came at a time when
Doordarshan and AIR were the most dominant broadcasters in
the country.
Section 11 of the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 clearly states 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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