GUWAHATI: Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) expressed profound grief over the demise of senior journalist Ashim Dutta, who succumbed to COVID-19 aggravated ailments this morning at Silchar Medical College Hospital (SMCH).
Dutta (65), who worked for a Bengali daily in Barak valley, was suffering from kidney problems and went for dialysis regularly. He was admitted to the hospital on Saturday after testing positive for novel corona virus infections. His health condition deteriorated next day and died in the early hours on Monday. A pass-out from Gauhati University, Dutta left behind his wife, only daughter and other relatives with well-wishers.
Assam lost its first scribe to Covid-19 complications only Sunday as Udalguri-based correspondent Dhaneswar Rabha (35) died in Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH). The forum declared that Rabha becomes the first journo-victim to Covid-19 pandemic in northeast India. He was also diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and put on regular dialysis. Lately tested positive for the virus infection, Rabha left behind his parents, wife, two kids, a host of relatives.
died at a Palghar based hospital, who later tested positive for Covid-19. The printer-publisher of AsomiyaKhabar (Rantu Das) also died at a Guwahati hospital and later tested positive for the virus infection.
As the casualties among the media fraternity because of Covid-19 complications start growing, JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria urged every scribe to be cautious while reporting from the ground. They expressed anguish that even though hundreds of scribes across the State got infected, the worrisome development is not reported properly by the concerned media outlets except few infected scribes made personal revelations in the social media.