Senior announcer Akhilesh Nanavati told Express Newsline that the Akashvani Announcers' Association (AAA) would continue their indefinite strike till their demands were met or till further notice from the Association headquarters in New Delhi.

The token hunger fast was in solidarity with the fast unto death launched by announcers in New Delhi. While the five are on strike since Saturday, an AAA statement said everyday one announcer would sit on fast.

Nanavati claimed that work related to other programmes would be affected as the announcers contributed towards drama production, presentation, script writing, dubbing, editing, besides other work. Of the five, four are senior announcers.

While the hike in the salaries of engineers, technicians and transmission executives has come into force from January 1, 1996, their demands have fallen on deaf ears despite several representations.

He said five posts of announcers were lying vacant since the past about five years. Though permission for filling the posts have been taken, the papers have not moved, he said, adding in the absence of the announcers, the work was carried out by 15-odd casual announcers, which affected the quality of work.

Claiming that announcers helped in the production because of staff shortage, he regretted that despite their being in the same cadre as that of engineers, technicians and transmission executives, their salaries were not raised.

He said the Association had already informed the department that they would go on a lightning strike if their demands were not fulfiled.

Earlier, in November 1998, announcers of AIR, Vadodara had spotted black badges to protest against the Government's failure to increase their salary.

The AAA's statement stated that unlike others in the department, an announcer remained an announcer till he retired.