DG (AIR) appreciates ARTEE website:
We realize that proper and fast communication is the main mantra for the success of any welfare association in general, and employees association in particular in the era of Information Technology revolution. Informing and educating members instantly, about the latest developments in the field of their interest, is one of the most important responsibilities of the leadership. Further, as we are representing the engineering cadres, we should be the first to utilize the benefits of technology towards the benefit of Association and for the welfare of our members. Taking this into account, we have started updating our web-site (www.arteeindia.org) with latest information on the developments (especially in the interest of our members) in the Department and the activities of the Association. We are receiving appreciation from all corners and the latest is the wholehearted appreciation from the Director General, Sh.Brijeshwar Singh of All India Radio. Sh. Ashwini Dagar deserves full appreciation for maintaining the site.

IIS should keep quite or Else ……
Personnel of Indian Information Services were known as blue-eyed boys as they are the voice of the Government departments. But after the launch of DD news, it has been discovered that these employees are not capable to run the show. Accordingly they were shunted out or cornered to make way for the so-called outside talents. These staff members were compelled to react against this step motherly attitude. As a show of protest they made a sit in Dharna outside the office of the Secretary I & B. The Principle Information Officer (PIO) Govt. of India, the highest post for IIS, thought it wise to show solidarity with his fraternity. (We wish we had such employee friendly officials in engineering fraternity). But the Secretary took it otherwise and started punishing the IIS brethren. Result-the PIO has been shifted out of the Ministry and authorities contemplated severe action against a number of others. That's where NFADE intervened and sent in a strongly worded letter to the ministry against this harassment. This compelled the authorities not to go ahead with the punishments. Now it is heard that authorities had issued memos to 5 members. We stand for the democratic rights of the working community and staging a peaceful Dharna is very much within these rights. NFADE plans to take up this issue further.

Felicitation to Senior Leaders: Sh. J. M. Nangia, our veteran leader has superannuated in the month of April 2004. As a token of thanks-giving for all their services to the Association, Central Executive of ARTEE felicitated him on 16-07-2004. We wish him a very happy and happening retired life.

Member Personnel Joins Prasar Bharati: We extend a warm welcome to Sh. K.P.S. Lamba on his taking over the charge of Member (Personnel). It is for the first time, after the inception of Prasar Bharati, that someone is appointed on the post. ARTEE hopes that staff matters will be taken up on priority now.

Harassment in the O/O CE (NZ): Officiating CE (DDM) and DE (AVM) of CE (NZ) perhaps think that HRD means Human-resource Ruining Department and they seem to be making research on this issue. Every transfer order issued by these officials shows their eagerness for further research. DE (AVM) has become so adept at these practices during the last 3-4 years that he seems to have taken things fully in his hands. So much so that at times it appears that the incumbent CE (AVM) is not even consulted before going ahead with transfers etc. We fail to understand why a heartless fellow is kept on a crucial post, which requires broad understanding of human nature/ behavior and an empathetic attitude towards the staff. We have received complaints from number of people who come to meet the officials from far off places with requests for transfers/ postings, but Mr. Saxena not only refuses to meet them but also misbehaves with them. Once again it is being proved that it is difficult for an Engineering officer to become a good administrator but very easy to become a humiliator. We demand that zonal office must see some officials who believe in maintaining good relations with the staff for optimum support and output.

Zonal Bifurcation
The bifurcation of North-East Zone and East Zone is a reality now. As everybody knows it was a political decision and the preparations for the same were taking place since long time. But the unfortunate part of this bifurcation is that none of the administrative and HRD expert Engineering Officers in the AIR Directorate could foresee the staff problems in the affected zones. Personnel working in the North-East Zone who opted for East Zone are in a state of shock. The result is a large number of SEA, EA and Sr. Techs are trapped in NE Zone even after completing three or four years in place of two-year tenure. After strong demand, transfer orders for some of them have been issued. Immediately after taking charge we gave a serious thought to the issue and gave a set of suggestions to the Directorate to ease out the problems arising out of bifurcation. Accordingly we demanded to physically bring all the engineering staff who opted for East Zone to their mother zone and to find out some ways to minimize the stagnation in East Zone and also to take care of the stations in North-East Zone. But unfortunately authorities seem to be too preoccupied to give a thought to such a serious crisis situation faced by our staff members. But we plan to redouble our efforts towards settling the issue amicably. As we know that since the bifurcation of East Zone and NE zone, few serious issues have surfaced like;
(i). Stagnation of Promotion in the cadre of SEA and Sr. Tech. as a result of surplus deployment in East Zone.
(ii). A good number of EAs, SEAs are not able to come back to their choice place even after completion of tenure in North-East region.
(iii). Even after bifurcation of zones for more than a year, project works are still being pursued and controlled by O/O CE (EZ).
     In this connection there were few meetings at the Directorate level among the officials of zonal offices. The latest meeting took place on 06-07-2004 to presumably to thrash out these issues. Association was not called for this meeting, we have not yet been informed about the outcome of the meeting.

West Zone Committee on wheels:
The West Zone committee under the leadership of Sh. Milind Joshi had a hectic schedule in visiting various places in the zone. In the first phase the team visited Satna, Rewa, Jabalpur, Khandwa, Bhusawal and Jalgaon. The units at Satna and Rewa were rejuvenated. Members from various stations under DMC Sagar and Chhattarpur also attended the meeting at Rewa. Members from LPT Burhanpur and Kukshi attended the meeting held at Khandwa. Members had detailed interaction with the team. Team met the officers in various stations to discuss and solve various local issues. Sh. L. B. Patil (AGS-AIR), Sh. A. K. Jain (AGS-TV) and Sh. M. A. Tanasha (JS) accompanied VP (WZ).
     In the second phase, the team visited marathwada region. The meeting at Aurangabad was attended by members from Jalna also. Further they visited Ambajogai, Beed, Ahmed Nagar and Pune. All the issues including RR,

Various facilities, Court cases, Transfer Policy, Notional fixation, local matters were discussed in detail and had meeting with the Head of offices in various stations. VP (WZ) was accompanied by Sh L.B. Patil (AGS), Sh. Deepak (JS- Tech/Sr.Tech), Sh. N .L. Deshmukh (Org. Secretary) and Sh. Rewatkar (State Secretary-MS).

Recruitment Rules:
As everybody is aware, Prasar Bharati, in March and June 2002, had notified the Recruitment Rules for some of the Engineering cadres. These recruitment rules (especially for cadres from Helper to AE) are against the interests of the cadres as pay scales of all cadres were downgraded, entry-level qualification for Technician was made as 2 year Diploma in Electronics & Telecommunication (which does not exist), etc. After the strong protest from the Association, especially in the common platform of JFADEE, the CEO agreed to constitute a Committee under the chairmanship of E-in-C (AIR) with the representatives of the Associations as members, to review the recruitment rules notified or to be notified. Even though the committee had some meetings in 2002, no meetings took place after April 2003.
     Immediately after taking charge we took up this matter with CEO and accordingly the committee had started its activities. As we have published in our website, Chairman of the Committee has given two proposals (inputs) in September and October 2003 to the Associations and we were asked to send in our suggestions. Accordingly we submitted our proposal, after studying the various aspects as well as the pros and cons.
     As it is clear from the proposal, we have concentrated especially on some pivotal and vital aspects:
1. The RR notified, by Prasar Bharati, in 2002 was based on Vth Central Pay Commission (CPC) report. The IVth & Vth Pay Commissions defined pay scales of Professional cadres on the basis of entry qualification (accordingly we were compelled to fight for the scales again from 1997 to 1999). Further, we have an example of JTO of BSNL (DOT) who have got their entry qualification changed as Degree in Engineering (for direct recruits) with the up-gradation of their pay scales prior to IVth CPC. As a result their payscales are left untouched by the Vth pay commission, while down grading our scales.
     Taking cue from these points, we have demanded the enhancement of qualification for all the entry-level cadres (and thereby protecting the scales from future onslaught of pay commissions). We have demanded that entry of Engineering cadre in PB should start from ITI qualification in the light of change in technologies as well as the policy decision of the govt. not to fill up group-IV posts. As per the `saving clause' of DOP&T, all the incumbents should be considered as having higher qualification so that there is no break in the existing chain of cadres. We have demanded that there should not be any departmental examination and the promotions should be through seniority-cum-fitness with the increased quota of minimum 50% for departmental promotions.
     We also suggested the merger of intermediate cadres of Sr. Tech, SEA and ASE with their immediate higher cadres. The cadres of Sr. Tech and SEA were created by the demand of this Association when there were practically no (or very lass) promotions in the department. But these cadres should be merged with EA, AE and SE respectively in the changed scenario. We demanded to re-designate our cadres like Assistant, Broadcasting Technician, Broadcasting Engineer, Assistant Manager, and Deputy Director/Manager etc.
     We have emphasized on the time scales for every seven years of service. We know that any RR without time Scales will not make any major difference especially in the situations of practical stagnation in promotion of our cadres. So we cannot accept any proposals without time scale. Our concept is; A person joining as Assistant (or Broadcasting Assistant) should get the scale of AE (or AM), Br. Technician should get the scale of SE and Br. Engineer should get the scale of Sg. Engineer (DE) at the minimum of three Time scales.
     As the RR notified in 2002 has shown the Central DA (CDA) scales. Following CDA scales instead of Industrial DA (IDA) may help in case another pay commission comes in between or immediately after finalisation of our Recruitment Rules (RR). Further it is very clear that whenever converting from CDA to IDA scale we will get the corresponding scales. Senior leaders of unions of BSNL etc were also of the viewpoint that it will be safe and better if we stick to CDA scales up to the maximum possible time.
     We have got consensus on this proposal with ADTEA and they also submitted the same proposal. In the meeting held on 06th January 2004, Chairman agreed to accept our proposal as the basis for further discussion and even agreed in principle for Rs.4000-6000 scale for Helper by enhancing the qualification as ITI for the future intakes.
     No meeting could take place for a long time inspite of repeated demands from Associations. Meanwhile the office side had released a number of proposals. In the meeting held on 02-06-2004, the office side tabled another proposal dated 28-05-2004 with the introduction of some new cadres, retaining all the existing cadres. JFADE was asked to give a feedback on this proposal. In the meantime proposals for Programme and Administrative cadres were circulated amongst the respective Associations. In the light of these proposals, we've decided to stick to our proposal, and in the meeting held on 13-07-2004, Chairman (RR Committee) has agreed in principle to reconsider the merger of some of the intermediate cadres (Sr. Tech., SEA and ASE) and protecting the scales of our cadres by enhancing qualification for future intakes, changing of designation etc.

Modification of Recruitment Rules of Technician: ARTEE requested the CEO for De-notification of the already notified Recruitment Rules, because of some glaring discrepancies. CEO assured that necessary amendments to these rules will be made as per the recommendations of the RR review committee. Further, the absurdity in the Recruitment qualification of Technicians was brought to the notice of the CEO. Considering the urgency CEO directed that a proposal may be submitted, for approval in the next meeting of the Prasar Bharati Board, that the diploma may be read as 'Two Year Trade Certificate', so that recruitment of Technicians can be initiated without waiting for amendment in the RR. The proposal has since been approved in the PB board meeting on 18th December 2003.Accordingly the order for the same has also been issued. This is the possible temporary arrangement without going through the formalities of gazette notification.
     For the time being it is at least assured that 2 year ITI Certificate holder will continue to be considered for the posts of Technician.

Meeting with CEO on 19th July: ARTEE had a meeting with the CEO on 19th July. 'Problems of J&K' was the only issue that could be discussed in the two hour meeting, but CEO has assured of another meeting very soon to discuss remaining issues. In the meeting, a number of alternatives were discussed to come out of the HQ shifting imbroglio. No final decision could be arrived at.