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Central Government approved a proposal to provide financial relief of Rs. five lakh to each of the families of 26 journalists who died due to Covid-19.
Earlier, it had provided such assistance to 41 families of the journalists who died due to Covid.
The Journalist Welfare Scheme Committee headed by Information and Broadcasting Secretary Amit Khare cleared the financial assistance for families of the journalists yesterday.
The Committee also expressed its deep condolences to the families of the journalists affected due to Covid.
In a suo-moto move, the Ministry and Press Information Bureau under the guidance of Information and Broadcasting Minister, Prakash Javadekar, had compiled and collated the details of journalists who lost their lives due to the pandemic in the years 2020 and 2021 and started a special drive to provide assistance to their families under the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS).
The PIB pro-actively reached out to the families of many journalists who lost their lives due to COVID-19 and also guided them about the scheme and filing of claims.
The committee also decided to hold JWS meetings on a weekly basis so that applications for financial assistance can be processed expeditiously.
The JWS meeting was attended by other members including Jaideep Bhatnagar, Principal Director General, PIB, Joint Secretary in the Ministry, Vikram Sahay and representatives of Journalist Unions .
