Wednesday, 20 July 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The Uttarakhand government has given a sum of Rs two crore for the corpus of the Journalist Welfare fund (JWF). The interest incurred on this corpus is used for giving financial help for the journalists and their pension.
This announcement was made by the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami in a meeting of the committee of the JWF at the state secretariat on Tuesday. He said that the rules and regulation for pension scheme for journalists should be simplified and its name should be changed to Mukhyamantri Patrakar Pension Yojana.
In the meeting a total of 18 applications were discussed out of which 16 were related to the financial assistance and two with the pension. A total of Rs 36 lakh was cleared for the dependents of the journalists and those suffering from serious ailments. It was also decided that one more chance should be given to those whose applications are incomplete.
Dhami said that he is versed with the problems of the journalists and is trying to solve these problems. He added that the state government is trying to provide every possible facility to the journalists. Dhami directed the officers of the information department that they should prepare a concrete plan for the welfare of the journalists. He said that a solution for accidental insurance of the journalists would be found. Dhami said that his government has increased the monthly pension given to elderly journalists from Rs 5,000 per month to Rs 8,000. He assured that similar discussions on the welfare of the journalists would be made in the future also.
Dhami said that the state government is working towards making Uttarakhand one of the leading states of the country by the year 2025 and all the departments have been asked to prepare a roadmap for implementing this endeavour. He said that the media plays an important role in ensuring that the achievements of the government reach out to the common people. The CM directed the information department to strike a better coordination with the media so that the achievements of the government reach out to the general public.
The non government members of the committee Yogesh Bhatt, Ramesh Pahadi and T C Bhatt, special principal secretary Abhinav Kumar, director general of Information Ranveer Singh Chauhan, additional director Anil Chandola and joint director K S Chauhan were present in the meeting.
