- Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on March 21, 2018, reconstituted the composition of Committee on Journalist Welfare Scheme and Central Press Accreditation Committee. As per the ministry ,journalists are made members of the Journalists Welfare Committee for the first time.
- Central Press Accreditation Committee wiil be chaired by Principal Director General, PIB with Representative from Press Council of India, Representative from News Broadcasters Association as its members.
- Other members of the committee include Shri Prashant Mishra, Dainik Jagran, Smt Navika Gupta, Times Now, Shri Kanchan Gupta, ABP News, Shri J Gopikrishna, The Pioneer and Smt Smita Prakash, ANI. The members of the Committee have a tenure of 2 years and shall meet once in a quarter or more frequently.
- The composition of Committee on Journalist Welfare Scheme has been made leaner for its efficient functioning. Now only Secretary (I&B), Joint Secretary (P&A), Principal Director General, PIB would be official members. For the first time journalists are also made members to the Committee. Six Journalists viz, Shri Vikas Bhadauria, Smt Richa Anirudh, Shri Ashok Upadhyay, Shri Sujit Thakur, Ms Sipra Das, Shri Ravindra Singh were made as non official members of the Committee on Journalist Welfare Scheme.
- The term of non official members of the Committee will be for a period of two years. This initiative will benefit the aggrieved parties by giving support in a time bound manner.
About Journalist Welfare Scheme
- Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has recently increased the provision for Journalist welfare scheme by five fold to Rs. 1 crore in Budget Estimate 2018 – 19 from Rs.20 lakh in 2017-18.
- Aim: The scheme aims to provide one time ex-gratia relief on urgent basis to journalists and their families on the event of extreme hardship.
- This scheme covers journalists accredited to PIB / State Governments / UTs or non-accredited journalists working for a minimum period of five continuous years either whole time or part time as news editor, reporter, photographer, cameramen, photo journalist, freelance journalist.
- The financial assistance available under this scheme is upto Rs. 5 lakh to the family on account of death of journalist, upto Rs. 5 lakh to the journalists in case of permanent disability, upto Rs. 3 lakh towards the cost of treatment of major ailments which is not covered under CGHS or any other insurance / health schemes.
