Government nod for financial help to families of 35 deceased journalists

The Centre on July 1 approved a proposal to provide financial relief to the families of 35 deceased journalists, 16 of whom fell to Covid, under the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS).

The families will be provided with assistance up to Rs 5 lakh, an official statement said.

Additionally, the Journalist Welfare Scheme Committee, chaired by Information & Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Apurva Chandra, also recommended assistance to two journalists suffering from permanent disability and to five for their medical treatment of major ailments as per the JWS guidelines.

The committee has approved a total assistance of Rs 1.81 crore during the meeting. So far, assistance under the scheme has been provided to the families of 123 journalists who have lost their lives due to Covid.

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.