CM assures to look into welfare of media

Nagaland chief minister T. R. Zeliang has assured to look into the matters pertaining to the welfare of the state media which was highlighted by Nagaland Press Association (NPA) Saturday. The chief minister gave the assurance during an interaction with NPA members led by its president K. Temjen Jamir at his official residence office, Kohima.
During the interaction, NPA reminded the chief minister of the commitments made by the state government to provide facilities for the working journalists in the state.
The association also impressed upon him that there were other issues related to the welfare of working and non-working journalists in the state which needed attention.
In a representation to the chief minister, the association also asked Zeliang to take up the issues highlighted earlier in a representation submitted by NPA to the former chief minister Neiphiu Rio in 2012.
NPA also reminded the chief minister about the implementation of the journalists’ welfare fund as well as housing facilities for journalists which was announced by Rio on November 7, 2007.
The association pointed out that so far the state government was yet to announce the fund and requested the chief minister to expedite the process.
It was pointed out that setting up of such a welfare fund would help the journalists as well as non-journalists employees of the media houses in difficult times, such as accidents, medical treatments and even help the family in case of death.
With states like Manipur announcing series of welfare schemes for the journalist community, NPA felt the need for the state government to follow suit.
The association also pointed out that under the welfare scheme and PDS, journalists in Manipur were granted 50 kg of ration each at the rate of Rs 9.30 kg by the state government. NPA opined that such scheme could also be considered for the working journalists in Nagaland.
NPA also requested the government to formulate pension scheme for the journalists on the lines of other state governments citing examples of states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Tripura, Assam and Manipur.
NPA reminded the chief minister to make transport and newsprint subsidies available to the media houses and the all pending bills regarding advertisements be cleared according to the policy of the government of India.
After listening to the NPA members patiently, the chief minister assured to take up the matters and study the schemes being implemented in other states and take appropriate steps.