For more than a week now, hundreds of casual announcers from across the country, associated with AIR for decades, are on a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar demanding their regularisation.
A group of striking casual announcers of All India Radio (AIR) on Wednesday met Information and Broadcasting (I&B) minister Venkaiah Naidu in a last ditch attempt to resolve the issue of their regularisation. Shiv Sena leader Hemant Godse and BJP leader Virendra Kashyap also joined the group.
They, were, however, disappointed.
For more than a week now, hundreds of casual announcers from across the country, associated with AIR for decades, are on a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar demanding their regularisation.
According to them, Naidu, during the meeting, had urged the casual announcers to end their strike, but did not assure them of regularisation of their jobs.
"He said he has just taken charge and will need time to resolve the issue. He gave us just 10 minutes at his residence saying that he is unwell. However, he later came to another MRPS programme in Jantar Mantar and was there for almost an hour, next to where we were holding our strike," one of the announcers said.
"He said he need to ask for details from AIR and there could be some progress in this matter only after two months," one of the announcers said, adding that similar assurances were given to them by former I&B minister Manish Tewari, but there was never any progress.
dna had earlier reported that many of these announcers have been working for more than 20 years and are paid a mere Rs1,300 to Rs1,400 per assignment, which runs up to six a month. Most of them have periodically written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Mann Ki Baat platform on AIR, but haven't got any response as yet.
Moreover, there is a Supreme Court judgement which mentions that casual employees who have been working for 10 years should be made permanent.
Even a parliamentary committee report on the "Working Conditions of Women in Prasar Bharati" had observed that Prasar Bharati was guilty of unfair labour practises, as the employees there were kept as casual workers against jobs which were of permanent nature. It is estimated there are around 3,000 casual announcers and comperes in Akashvani's regional centres across the country, as against 300 permanent ones.
While Naidu had urged the announcers to put an end to their hunger strike, the announcers they are set to continue the strike till they get an affirmative response from the government.
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