Prasar Bharti employees apprehensive of future

DARBHANGA: Association of Radio and Television Engineering Employees (ARTEE) has demanded an end to the uncertainty surrounding their status, retention of all service benefits they enjoyed in the past as government servants and funding of Prasar Bharti from the consolidated fund of India.
Though Prasar Bharti Broadcasting Corporation was formed to provide autonomy to Doordarshan and AIR, the employees have become a suffering lot in the face of lurking fear about their uncertain future.These views came to the fore at the state convention of ARTEE held here on Monday.
While hailing the formation of the corporation as the need of the hour to counter sky invasion unleashed by various satellite channels and foreign broadcasting companies, the speakers simultaneously changed gears asking for the restoration of their service facilities they were entitled to prior to the formation of Prasar Bharti in 1997.
Speaking on the occasion, national vice president of the organisation, Kuldeep Bhan sought for the autonomous status based on the pattern of Election Commission of India. Being a sole public broadcasting corporation, Prasar Bharti cannot generate much of the advertisement revenues owing to its nationalistic and societal characters.
Decreasing grant-in-aid on the part of government has been creating a financial crisis, he claimed. He pointed out that employees were now denied even government housing, Central government health schemes and various other facilities since the formation of the autonomous body. Among the others who spoke on the occasion included vice president of east zone, J P Sengupta, state secretary (Bihar), Vidya Sagar, deputy director (AIR, Darbhanga), Sajal Ranjan Maiti and station engineer P K Thakur.
Earlier, the function was inaugurated by Darbhanga town MLA, Sultan Ahmad while the mayor Omprakash Khedia was the guest of honour on the occasion. Meanwhile, national federation of AIR and Doordarshan employees (NFADE) has decided to hand over a memorandum to Prime Minister as well as to the governors on October 15 to highlight their plight seeking remedial measures.