A delegation of "Prasar Bharati" Contractual Employees called on Union Minister of State for Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances ,Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh here today and requested him to take up with the government their demand for regularization of their services. A memorandum submitted to the Minister by the delegation representatives Shri Rajeev Sonkar, Shri Lalit Tewari and others stated that for more than a decade, they had been working in various Doordarshan channels like DD National, DD India, DD News, DD Urdu, DD Sports, Central Production Centre (CPC), DD K-Delhi, NC-KD, Archive, ADG (DC), DD Bharti, Delhi, Gangtok, Raipur, Patna, Mau, Mirzapur, Indore, Allahabad, Gwalior, Bhopal and other programme stations spread across the country, but they are paid a meager salary ranging from Rs.17,000/- to a maximum of Rs 20,000/ or Rs.25,000/- per month, which , according to them, is too less to make two ends meet.
The memorandum further stated that the number of such category of employees spread all over India is around 500 and they are highly qualified with most of them having specialized degrees in mass communication, journalism, etc. But in spite of that, they are paid a consolidated salary without any additional benefit like health insurance, Provident Fund, etc. available to other employees in the government. Another grievance expressed by the employees was that while in other departments of the government, there is some mechanism of regularization of services of employees falling under similar categories. They said that in their case, even after putting in service for several years, there is no mechanism in place for regularization of their services. As a result, they feel discriminated in comparison to their counterparts in other departments who are holding similar position for the same length of service but are paid better off.
The employees also stated that in 2003 they were, to begin with, recruited by M/s. Broadcast Engineering Consultant India Ltd. (BECIL) an enterprise of Government of India, but subsequently, their contract was transferred from BECIL to Prasar Bharati. Thereafter, they said, they were facing constant uncertainty of job because after their contract came to an end in February 2014, they were being kept on extension which was allowed only by a period of one month at a time, as a result of which they were under constant sense of insecurity. Dr. Jitendra Singh gave the delegation a patient hearing and said that their grievances will be forwarded to the appropriate authorities in the government.