Centre approves financial help for families of 35 journalists including those who died due to COVID-19
New Delhi: The Union government has approved a proposal of the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS) Committee to provide financial relief to the families of 35 journalists including those who have died due to coronavirus infection.
According to an official statement, the families will be provided with the assistance of up to five lakh rupees.
In addition to this, the Committee, chaired by Information & Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Apurva Chandra, also recommended assistance to two journalists suffering from permanent disabilities and to five for their medical treatment of major ailments as per the JWS guidelines.
So far, assistance under the scheme has been provided to 123 families of the journalists who have lost their lives due to COVID-19. With the current approvals, in the current meeting, a total of 139 families have been provided assistance.
Under the scheme, the families of journalists are provided with financial assistance up to Rs 5 lakh in the event of the death of the journalist causing extreme hardship. Assistance is also provided to journalists in case of permanent disability, serious accidents, and major health ailments.
During the last financial year, 134 journalists and their families were provided assistance under various categories amounting to Rs 6.47 Crore.
The JWS committee meeting was attended by Jaideep Bhatnagar, Principal Director General, PIB, Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary (I&B) along with the journalist representatives of the Committee, Santosh Thakur, Amit Kumar, Umeshwar Kumar, Sarjana Sharma, Raj Kishore Tiwari, and Ganesh Bisht.
