SHILLONG: In order to redress long pending grievances, a 11-member delegation of the Meghalaya Editors’ and Publishers’ Association (MEPA) met Chief Secretary Barkos Warjri here on Thursday and submitted a four-point memorandum to him.Led by MEPA president, Monarch Shabong and General Secretary, Philip Marweiñ, the media body brought to the notice of the Chief Secretary the issue of inordinate delay in payment of advertisement bills by government departments and line agencies. The MEPA delegation told the Chief Secretary that there were too many cases of bills being lost and not paid at all till date. It pointed out that even the DIPR, being the nodal agency for issue of advertisement to the media, “does not bother to clear its bills even after many years”, though funds for the purpose are made available by the government.
The organization urged Warjri to resolve this problem immediately as survival of the media establishments depend much on the flow of revenue from government advertisements. It suggested that the DIPR be made the nodal agency for clearance of government advertisement bills too.The MEPA also urged the Chief Secretary to immediately bring in place the Meghalaya Advertisement Policy. It submitted that in absence of the policy there cannot be guidelines as to how, why and to whom to issue government advertisements and at what rate. It stressed that a clear cut policy will determine how to handle government advertisements.
On the Majithia Wage Board recommendations for journalists and non-journalists MEPA pointed out that the first constituted State Level Tripartite Implementation Committee should be upheld, and its members be allowed to carry out the task of implementing the awards to media employees of the state. “Tampering with the committee by government labour department by replacing members from Meghalaya newspapers by members from Assam newspapers in the Committee would lead nowhere in implementation of the awards,” the MEPA said. It also appealed to the Chief Secretary to ensure that newspapers in the State are given transport subsidy as admissible to industrial units within Meghalaya as newsprint is imported from outside the state and the cost of transport is too high to bear.
