NEW DELHI: The recent media reports suggest that the news of government shifting daily bulletins broadcast in regional languages from Delhi to respective state capitals had led to the loss of jobs. A well-known daily reported that some of the employees claim that they have been verbally told not to come to the office anymore.

However, when Radioandmusic.com approached AIR, we discovered a different story. All contractual employees who had been involved in the regional news units (RNU) of All India Radio that have moved out of Delhi were given the offer to complete their contracts by moving to the city where the RNU had been shifted.

Reiterating this, a source in the public service broadcaster told Radioandmusic.com that no permanent employee has been affected and these employees have been moved to other departments.

The source said that AIR was not obliged to make the offer to contractual employees to complete their contracts, but ‘had gone an extra mile’ and asked the news readers to go to the city where the RNU had moved.

He said that reports appearing in the media were not based on facts and were motivated by contractual or casual employees.

Meanwhile, Parliament had been told by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore earlier this year that the decision by Prasar Bharati to shift Indian language news bulletins to their respective RNUs at various capital stations of AIR had been taken after the advent of satellite communication as it would cause unnecessary expenditure.

The national news bulletins continue to be aired in their respective languages from the state capitals without any change in time or number of bulletins to ensure optimum utilization of News Readers-cum-Translator in various regional languages posted in News Services Division of AIR.

He said there was no plan to shift the Urdu Unit from the All India Radio Headquarters in Delhi, Parliament has been informed.

The Sindhi Unit, which was shifted to Ahmedabad in 2005, is working effectively for more than a decade now. The casual News Reader-cum-Translators in Sindhi are adequately available in that particular region, he said.

Earlier in December last, the Minister had said the shifting of RNUs from Delhi to respective State capitals will not involve any additional expenditure.

He said: “It is a virtual shift with a change of place of production of bulletins only. The proposed shift will also not make any difference to listeners of AIR. The studios vacated will be suitably utilised.”