Ex-staffers of Anil Ambani-owned TV channel seek PMO’s intervention, take to Twitter to demand dues

Some of the ex-staffers of Anil Ambani owned business news channel BTVI which was shut down on August 31 2019 abruptly, took to Twitter to demand full and final as well as the statuary dues.

Many of them tagged the PMO and the Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking their intervenion in the matter.

An ex-employee of the channel, having more than 15 years of experience in journalism, told National Herald that salary for the month of August was disbursed on October 25 last year.

“Some of the employees have got PF but the majority of us are still waiting for the clearance dues including gratuity,” said the former employee.

Former political editor of BTVI, Vivek Awasthi, too took to Twitter and demanded full and final dues. He requested Home Minister Amit Shah and PM Modi to help the aggrieved employees.

Senior journalist Ashutosh Kumar who worked with the BTVI also tagged PMO, Ministry of External Affairs as well as the Finance Ministry which he covered for years in one of his tweets.

NH had reported on September 1, 2019, that the BTVI management announced to shut down its operations on August 31, 2019, in a mid-night communique.

In the message, conveying “heartful thanks to followers and viewers” the channel had stated that “we have paused our broadcast operations” and “over the next few days, we will communicate the future steps towards ensuring a smooth transition of our operations”.

However, no further communication has been sent in this regard so far by the management except a few babbles spread by the management.

A former employee of the channel who did not wish to be named said that sometime around December last year, talks for the revival and relaunch of the channel were set in motion. However, nothing eventually materialised.

Financial woes of BTVI started towards the end of 2018. It was being expected that after the general election, the channel – which was known to produce good content – will go on the path of recovery but luck failed the channel again, forcing it to shut down its operations in August 2019.

As per an employee who worked with the channel for years, around 200 employees including journalist and technical staff worked with the channel in hard times but “the management of Anil Ambani-owned channel failed to reward their loyalty and commitment”.