The employees, represented by several bodies, are demanding the status of government employees, better pay and filling up of the 8,000 vacant posts.
The employees are demanding scrapping of the Prasar Bharati Act to make the body a government unit again, or amendments in the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, to ensure they continue getting the current benefits.
With mounting pressure from staff organisations like the Akashwani and Doordarshan Administrative Staff Association (ADASA) and the National Federation of Akashwani and Doordarshan (NAFAD) employees, the Group of Ministers (GoM) looking into the financial restructuring of Prasar Bharati has included some of these in the agenda for its next meeting.
The GoM, which has met a couple of times in the past two years since it was set up, is likely to have a final meeting this month, sources say.
Last month, AIR and Doordarshan employees represented by ADASA had staged an indefinite hunger strike demanding salaries equivalent to the rest of the Prasar Bharati employees.
"The issue of upgrading the pay-scale of around 2,000 administrative staff representing the personnel and finance departments of AIR and Doordarshan field offices has been included in the next GoM's agenda, and we have been assured that our demands will be met within 15 days. Else, we will resume our agitation," said Sangam Thakur, secretary general, ADASA.
But the other faction, NAFAD, representing the rest of Prasar Bharati, has decided to start an agitation from May 19. "We will resume our agitation from May 19 by going on a
