By Our Staff Reporter
DEHRADUN, 19 Jul: A meeting of the Journalists’ Welfare Fund was organised at the Secretariat on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.
Dhami disclosed that an increase of Rs 2 crore would be granted to the Journalists’ Welfare Fund (corpus). Along with naming the pension scheme for journalist as the Chief Minister Journalist Pension Scheme, its rules would also be simplified. Journalists and their dependants are given financial assistance from the interest earned from the principal amount of the corpus, as also pension given to elderly journalists every month.
Eighteen cases were discussed at the meeting, of which 16 were related to financial assistance and 2 related to pension. An amount of Rs 36 lakh was approved from the Journalists’ Welfare Fund for the dependants of journalists and seriously ill journalists. It was decided at the meeting that in cases where the application forms are not yet complete, they would be given one more chance to complete them.
Dhami added that, keeping in mind the interests of journalists, the State Government is making efforts to provide them all possible facilities. There is awareness of the journalists’ problems and these would be solved expeditiously. He directed the senior officers of the Information Department to prepare a concrete plan for the welfare of journalists. Accident insurance for journalists would also be arranged. The monthly amount given to veteran journalists was also increased from Rs 5 thousand to Rs 8 thousand.
The Chief Minister said that such meetings would be organised in future also to solve the problems of journalists.
Dhami said that, in 2025, Uttarakhand will celebrate the Silver Jubilee of the state’s existence. The effort is to bring Uttarakhand among the leading states of the country in every field by 2025. All the departments have been asked to prepare a roadmap till 2025 and implement the work on the ground. The media plays an important role in bringing the achievements of the government to the people. It is the responsibility of the Information Department to take all the achievements and welfare schemes of the government to the common person. It should be ensured that, with better coordination with the media, all the achievements of the government are publicised.
Non-official members of the committee Ramesh Pahari, Trilok Chandra Bhatt and Yogesh Bhatt said that meaningful work is being done for the welfare of journalists under the leadership of the Chief Minister. They expressed the hope that more important steps would be taken in the interests of the journalists of the state.
So far, financial assistance of Rs1.2 crore has been provided to journalists from the Journalists’ Welfare Fund.
Present on this occasion wereSpecial Principal Secretary, Information, Abhinav Kumar, Director General, Information, Ranvir Singh Chouhan, Additional Director Dr Anil Chandola and Joint Director KS Chauhan.
