The Union authorities has accredited a proposal to supply monetary help to households of 26 extra journalists who misplaced their lives to Covid-19 within the ongoing monetary 12 months, and dependents of every of those journalists will get monetary aid of Rs 5 lakh underneath the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS) of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the federal government mentioned in an announcement on Thursday.
The authorities has accredited the committee’s proposal “to provide financial relief of Rs 5 lakh to each of the families of 26 journalists who died due to Covid-19” in 2021-22 monetary 12 months, starting April. In the final monetary 12 months, help was given to households of 41 journalists, the assertion mentioned.
In an announcement, the federal government mentioned that households of 67 journalists have been given monetary help since final 12 months.
The JWS committee, which is seeking to present help underneath a Central scheme to households of journalists who’ve died as a consequence of Covid-19, will meet weekly to course of the circumstances expeditiously, it was knowledgeable.
Sources mentioned that in contrast to different schemes for journalists, a Press Information Bureau accreditation is just not wanted to avail advantages underneath the JWS.
The assertion talked about that in a “suo motu move”, the I&B Ministry had “compiled and collated details of journalists who lost their lives due to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and started a special drive to provide assistance to their families under the Journalist Welfare Scheme”.
“The Press Information Bureau proactively reached out to the families of many journalists who lost their lives to Covid-19 and also guided them about the scheme and filing of claims,” it acknowledged. The committee has determined to carry JWS conferences each week “so that applications for financial assistance under JWS can be processed expeditiously”, the federal government mentioned.
The committee, headed by I&B Secretary Amit Khare, additionally contains PIB principal director-general Jaideep Bhatnagar, together with different senior officers and media representatives.