Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Sept 23 :
The Print and Electronic Media Association, J&K on Monday felicitated Advisor to Governor Farooq Khan(Retd) IPS and submitted a memorandum of the demands in a function held at KL Sehgal Hall, J&K Cultural Academy.
The memorandum of demands was presented by the Veteran journalists Sohail Qazmi, Pawan Sharma, Afzal Shah and Sudhir Kumar on the behalf of the journalists and photo journalists of the J&K UT to draw attention of the Government towards the problems being faced by the media fraternity in the state. In its memorandum, media fraternity apprised the Advisor to Governor Farooq Khan that Journalists Welfare Schemes, Mediclaim, concessions in state owned Inter State buses and Railways be introduced for media persons par other states.
They told that as per the ministry of Information & Broadcasting guidelines dated March 5th, 2019 , it is duty of the respective state governments to give support to the journalists and photo journalists and their families working in extreme hardship in time bound manner upto Rs 5 Lakh. The ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt of India also provided Rs 3 Lakh towards cost of treatment of major ailments such as cancer, renal failure, heart ailments requiring by pass/ open heart surgery, Angioplasty, brain Hemorrhage and paralytic attack, they informed.
Earlier, in his address Editor in Chief Daily Taskeen and Bureau Chief News 18 , Pawan Sharma apprised the advisor that It is matter of great concerned that the journalists and photo journalists associated with the different Print and Electronic Media of J&K UT are deprived off from number of welfare schemes , besides Travel concession on railways, state owned Inter State buses, mediclaim policy and grant of financial assistance being provided by the Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Ministry of Information and broadcasting, Govt of India and also other states of country. They also requested the state administration for the implementation of wage board recommendations for the welfare of scribes who are working in J&K UT in the extreme condition.
They also invited attention of Advisor to provide compensation to journalists , Photo journalists families in case of death as per the Guidelines of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting Vide its latest order issued on March 5th, 2019. Besides, the proposal for the setting of Journalists enclave in Jammu be immediate approved by the state administration. Speaking on the occasion, Advisor Farooq Khan recalled his long contribution with the media fraternity as police officer. He also thanked them for their cooperation. He also assured that the demands projected in the memorandum by media fraternity be taken up with the Governor J&K Satya Pal Malik so that they will also get benefits of the Journalists Welfare Scheme Those present included Additional Secretary, Cultural Academy Amrinder Aman, ID Soni, Amarjeet Singh CA, Vijay Sharma, Sudhir Kumar senior Journalist, Tilak Mehra (KNO) , Amzad Shah (Greater Kashmir), Afzal Shah, Raman Raina, Vishal Sharma, Surjeet Singh, Imran Mir, Atul Gupta, Jagjit Singh, Sanjay Gupta, Pradeep Bakshi, Ashish Kumar (all photo journalists) and others.
