The content creators of the State broadcaster Prasar Bharati have started a relay of demonstrations across the country against the inordinate delay in promotions, beginning with a protest outside the Prasar Bharati building in Capital on Monday.
Nearly 2,000-odd staff working in the programming division of the All India Radio and the Doordarshan, who are essentially the content creators of the State broadcasters, have had only two rounds of promotions since 1997 when Prasar Bharati came into being.
“One can imagine the level of stagnation by the simple fact that close to 100 employees were hired as programme executives in 1984, and of them only five who are still working [the remaining have retired] have been on the same post without promotion for the last 34 years,” said general secretary, Programme Staff Association of AIR and DD, R. Srinivasan.
Ongoing feud
The reason for such stagnation is not unavailability of posts or lack of eligibility of the staff, but the feud between the Prasar Bharati and the government over who is the promoting authority. After many exchanges between the Union Public Service Commission [that recruits Prasar Bharati staffers], the Prasar Bharati and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the matter was settled by an order of the Central Administrative Tribunal on November 4, 2015, which directed the Prasar Bharati to “complete all the departmental promotion committees within four months from the date of order”.
But since the CAT order, only two rounds of promotions have happened — one in 2015 and the latest on September 14.
“What shows the pitiable state of affairs is that out of 131 officials who have been promoted on September 14, only one is still in service,” Mr. Srinivasan added.
In a letter to Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati on August 28, the joint action force of AIR and Doordarshan officials has said that Monday’s protest is just a precursor to a series of protests. “Till date, no concrete movement seems to have happened on our demands like a clear schedule of the departmental promotion committee,” the letter states.
The next round of protests will be held on September 24, which will be followed by a relay of hunger strikes from October 4 to 6.
If even then the demands are not met, the staffers have threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike.
Mr. Vempati was not available for comment.