Uttarakhand : Journalists Welfare Fund meeting chaired by CM Dhami, Special Principal Secretary Information Abhinav Kumar, Director General of Information Ranveer Singh Chauhan and many officials were present

Under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, a meeting of Journalists Welfare Fund was organized at the Secretariat on Tuesday. The Chief Minister said that the Journalists Welfare Fund (corpus fund) would be increased by Rs.2 crore. Along with naming the pension given to the journalist as Chief Minister Journalist Pension Scheme, its rules should also be simplified. Journalists and their dependents are given financial assistance from the interest earned from the principal amount of corpus fund and pension amount is given to the elderly journalists every month. 18 cases were discussed in the meeting, out of which 16 cases were related to financial assistance and 02 cases were related to pension. In the meeting today, an amount of Rs 36 lakh was approved from the Journalists Welfare Fund for the dependents of journalists and seriously ill journalists. It was decided in the meeting that in cases where the application forms are not yet complete, they should be given one more chance to complete the application form.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that keeping in mind the interests of the journalists, the state government is trying to provide them all possible facilities. They are aware of the problems of journalists, they try to solve these problems expeditiously. He directed the senior officers of the Information Department to make a concrete plan for the welfare of journalists. A proper solution will also be found for accident insurance of journalists. Monthly amount given to veteran journalists has been increased from Rs.05 thousand to Rs.08 thousand. The Chief Minister said that such meetings would be organized in future also to solve the problems of journalists. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that in 2025, Uttarakhand will celebrate the silver jubilee of the establishment of the state. The state government is trying to bring Uttarakhand among the leading states of the country in every field by 2025. All the departments have been asked to prepare a roadmap till 2025 and bring the works on the ground. The media plays an important role in bringing the achievements of the government to the people. It is the responsibility of the Information Department to take all the achievements and welfare schemes of the government to the common man. It should be ensured that with better coordination with the media, all the achievements of the government reach the common people through various mediums.

Non-official members of the committee Ramesh Pahari, Trilok Chandra Bhatt and Yogesh Bhatt said that meaningful work is being done for the welfare of journalists under the leadership of the Chief Minister. He expressed hope that more important steps would be taken for the interests of the journalists of the state. So far, financial assistance of Rs. 01 crore 20 lakh has been provided to journalists from the Journalists Welfare Fund. On this occasion Special Principal Secretary Information Abhinav Kumar, Director General Information Ranveer Singh Chauhan, Additional Director Dr. Anil Chandola, Joint Director Mr. K.S. Chauhan was present.