Journalists welfare fund operationalised

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 5. Seven months after a provision was made in the Budget, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) has operationalised the Journalists Welfare Fund with a corpus greater than had been provided for and a scope that covers more than death in the line of duty.

Announcing the constitution and administration of the fund here today, the I&B Minister, Ms. Sushma Swaraj, said the journalists dying under the specified conditions (of the Act) would be given a one-time ex-gratia relief of Rs. 1 lakh.

And, the first beneficiaries of the fund were the four journalists killed in the air crash that killed the senior Congress leader, Madhavrao Scindia, earlier this week.

Besides the families of Anju Sharma of the Hindustan Times, Sanjeev Sinha of The Indian Express, and Ranjan Jha and Gopal Bisht of Aaj Tak, the Ministry has also decided to give an ex- gratia relief to the next of kin of Yogesh Mathur of the `PTI- Bhasha' who died of a heart attack recently.

Stating that the budgetary provision had been of only Rs. 1 crore, Ms. Swaraj said the Ministry had decided to increase it to Rs. 5 crores to provide for at least 50 journalists an year from the interest earned on the corpus.

It had also decided to expand the scope of the fund which the Government had introduced in view of the ``greater risks that journalists have to take in covering terrorist and other violence-prone incidents.''

As per the scheme worked out by the Ministry, a one- time ex- gratia relief on an urgent basis would be provided to the families of journalists who died or suffered permanent disability, ``rendering them incapable of discharging their duties due to unnatural causes and in the course of their duty.'' The Ministry would also consider cases of extreme hardship on account of the untimely death of the sole bread winner.

Journalists - as defined under the Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 - who are Indian citizens and ordinarily reside in India, would be eligible for relief under the fund, provided they were accredited to the Press Information Bureau at the Centre or any State Governments.

When it was pointed out that not all journalists were accredited, the Minister said the committee administering the fund would have the liberty to take up the cases of those journalists who did not fulfill the criteria.

The fund would be administered by a committee, with the I&B Minister and the Minister of State as its patrons and the Secretary as the Chairperson. The committee would have the Additional Secretary and the Financial Adviser, the Principal Information Officer and the Joint Secretary (Policy) as its members. Cases would be brought up for consideration by the PIO.

Though the corpus would be retained in bank/postal accounts, a provision had been made for ``prudently'' investing the money to ``facilitate optimal cash flow'' as the modalities stipulated that the payments be restricted to the interest only.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : People's Front for early polls in U.P.
Next     : Indian Divorce (Amendment) Act notified