Welfare board for journalists mooted

Announcing that a panel will be formed to look into the matter, the Minister said that the committee would be headed by State’s Finance Secretary. It will also comprise secretary, Information Department, Director of Information and Public Relations besides the Labour Commissioner. Earlier, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar MLA Thayagam Kavi, gave a tough time to the Minister pointing out that in the past 30 years only 182 journalists benefitted from the pensioners’ schemes and the number of beneficiaries were very few when compared to the number of media organisations that has come up in the state. Pointing out that former CM M Karunanidhi always identified himself as a journalist and believed in freedom of press had rolled out several schemes for the fraternity. But, the pension and the solatium for a journalist Mohan, who died last year is yet to be released by the state, Kavi informed.

Quoting the examples of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh which has laws protecting journalists, the MLA demanded a special act for protection of working journalists. He pointed out that the scribes are facing threats. Kavi also alleged that the Tiruvallur statue in Kanniyakumari was poorly maintained and demanded regular boat services to it. He also said that the annual awards given by the information and Tamil development departments for the actors and Tamil scholars were getting delated due to administrative issues.

In his reply, the Minister said that the state was taking steps to address the issues and announced sprucing up of press rooms and the memorials named after Mahatma Gandhi, Kamaraj and Bharathiyar.