Mangaluru: At a press conference held on Thursday, April 15, Manohar Kadri, announcer at All India Radio (AIR) Mangaluru said that the new policy of Prasar Bharati would affect the regional programmes of Akashvani and also the reduction of local content is a threat to the employment of announcers and other technical staff.
Explaining further he said that the policy was planned to be introduced in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, but other states opposed it and hence, it was dropped.
Aruna S Nayak, representing the staff of AIR Mangalore, said, “it is learnt that many of the programmes will be relayed from the station in the capital in the near future. This will reduce the opportunity for the local talents for which this station is constituted. The transmission is being run by casual announcers for four years. The announcers, who are the backbone of the transmission, will be sacked with this change. Several staff totally depend on AIR Mangalore for their daily bread.”
“We humbly request the media to bring the matter to the knowledge of minister Prakash Javadekar and ensure that the local AIR station keeps transmitting more and more local content as well as provide opportunities for the announcers to continue serving a national broadcaster,” Aruna said.
She said that in the name of in the name of cost-cutting, employees are being removed from AIR. In this regard, we have filed a memorandum to the MLA.
Praveen Amembala, Announcer Gayatri and Rama Rao of Radio Listeners Association also shared their views at the press meet.
