By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The State government has decided to provide health insurance scheme for the media persons in the state.
According to sources, three categories of heath scheme have been planned for the journalists of the State.
While Rs 60,000 will be released to the media persons to treat general sickness, Rs 90,000 will be sanctioned for serious illness and Rs 1.60 lakh for critical illness per year,
Earlier on Saturday during a function, the Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma also announced the formation of a tripartite committee in order to study the recommendations made by the Majithia wage board for fixing and revising wages and allowances for working journalists and non-journalists and other employees of the newspapers.
“The tripartite committee will consist of members from the directorate of information and public relations department, publishers and editors of media houses besides working journalists”, the Chief Minister said.
Dr Sangma also informed that the State Government has decided to revise the advertisement rate for the newspapers and media houses while calling upon the media houses on the need to share the responsibilities for the welfare of working journalists especially in terms of salary.
He also said a prime land in Shillong has been identified for the establishment of the Shillong Press Club to enable the media to work efficiently.
“The government has identified a plot of land which is very much at the heart of the city to be allotted to the SPC of which the proposal will be worked out immediately”, Dr Sangma said.
Dr Sangma expressed concern over the lack of media coverage in the State and added that development programmes of the State Government could not reach out to the entire State, due to the lack of media coverage.
“The government would make all out efforts to ensure that the media play a big role in the development of the State”, he said even while maintaining that the print and electronic media should be made more vibrant to ensure effective democracy.
Legislator Manas Chaudhuri, who is also a veteran journalist, while stressing on media credibility, urged the journalists not to involve in tarnishing the image of public representatives with one sided reporting.
“Reporting should be balanced and impartial to ensure the credibility of the newspaper and the journalists should be very cautious in providing publicity to contestants and political parties particularly during elections, as their aim was only to win the election”, Chaudhuri said.