Rs 5 lakh aid for kin of 67 journalists who died due to COVID

New Delhi: Centre approved financial assistance for the families of journalists who succumbed to the deadly Coronavirus on Thursday.

"During the current financial year, 26 journalists who died due to COVID-19. In the financial year 2020-21, the central government provided such assistance to another 41 families of the journalists decreased due to COVID-19 taking the total number to 67," the official statement by the I&B ministry mentioned.

The proposal was given by Journalist Welfare Scheme Committee headed by Amit Khare, Secretary, I&B ministry. Each family will get Rs 5 lakh under the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS) of the ministry. It further said that the committee will hold JWS meetings on weekly basis to process the applications expeditiously. The committee expressed their deep condolences to the families of the journalists affected due to the coronavirus infection.

The Press Information Bureau (PIB) pro-actively reached out to the families of many journalists who lost their lives and also guided them about the scheme and filing of claims. The Committee also considered applications of another 11 families of those journalists who had passed away due to the same reason.

Journalists and their families can apply for assistance under the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS) through the PIB website at https://accreditation.pib.gov.in/jws/default.aspx.

The recent JWS meeting was also attended by other members including Jaideep Bhatnagar, Principal Director General, PIB, Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary (I&B). Journalist representatives of the committee Santosh Thakur, Amit Kumar, Umeshwar Kumar, Sarjana Sharma were present in the meeting.