We will demand from the government that it should take effective steps for the facilities of the journalists of Delhi - Dr. Harsh Vardhan

Mahesh Dhoundiayl - Delhi

Memorandum given to the former Health Minister of Delhi Government, Dr. Harsh Vardhan Ji, on behalf of Working Journalists of India Union

New Delhi, June 26, A memorandum was given to the former Health Minister of Delhi Government, Dr. Harsh Vardhan Ji, on behalf of our union, Working Journalists of India, regarding the demands of the journalists of Delhi. You must be aware that when Dr. Harsh Vardhan was the Health Minister in Delhi, he brought the Medical Aid Bill for the journalists, which was destroyed by Sheila Dikshit and Kejriwal Government.

The memorandum was given to Dr. Harsh Vardhan Ji, on behalf of the National President of the Union, Mr. Sanjay Kumar Upadhyay, National General Secretary Narendra Bhandari, President of Delhi Unit Sandeep Kumar Sharma Ji. On this occasion, journalists

Balram Sharma, Mani Arya, Rajesh Khanna,

Ish Malik, Shivaji Sarkar, Mahesh Dhondiyal,

Mahendra, Sumit Upadhyay, Pawan Juneja were also present.

 The memorandum given to Dr. Harsh Vardhan is as follows. 
1 Demand for amendment in Delhi Press Reporters Medical Aid Rules 1995 - Sir, when you were the Health Minister in Delhi, in the year 1995, the Delhi Government notified these rules for accredited journalists. Under which, journalists, their parents, husband or wife, and children will be given all those medical facilities which are being given to Class One Gazetted Officers (Group A) in the Central or State Governments. Initially, journalists and their family members started getting the benefit of these rules, but later some flaws started being found in those rules, due to which Delhi journalists started facing various problems in getting medical facilities. Sir, Delhi Government's DIP i.e. Directorate of Information and Publicity issues health cards to the accredited journalists of the Delhi Government.  This health card is not issued by the Directorate General of Health of the Delhi Government, due to which the medical facilities available in government and panel private hospitals and labs are not available to the first class gazetted officers. Sir, journalists associated with the Press Information Bureau of the Central Government also get medical facilities in government and private hospitals, in return for which the Directorate General of Health of the Central Government takes some annual amount from the journalists. Sir, if the Directorate General of Health of the Delhi Government also starts issuing health cards to the journalists accredited by the Delhi Government and starts providing them all the medical facilities available to the first class gazetted officers in government and panel private hospitals and labs, then the accredited journalists of the Delhi Government are also ready to give the amount to the Directorate General of Health, which the Directorate General of Health of the Central Government takes from the journalists accredited by PIB. Sir, for the last 2 years, the medical bills of many journalists of Delhi are pending in the Directorate General of the Delhi Government due to some technical reasons.  We demand from you that all those medical bills be paid.

2 Pension to Delhi journalists- Most of the states of the country, including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Telangana, Odisha, are prominent, which provide regular monthly pension facility to the journalists of their state. But the journalists of the country's capital, Delhi, are deprived of this facility. Delhi journalists and Delhi Journalist Accreditation Committee have discussed this matter many times and have demanded from the Delhi government to implement this pension facility, but this demand has never been implemented. The High Court of Himachal Pradesh has also given instructions to the state government regarding this (copy attached). Respected Sir, our demand is that the journalists who have been recognized by the Information and Broadcasting Department of the Delhi Government for about 10 years and are journalists of the age of 60 years or more, should be given regular pension facility of Rs 15,000 (fifteen thousand rupees).  All these should be given to those journalists who fall within the age and government recognition time limit, but whether they are currently in the field of journalism or not, all of them should get this facility.

Sir, we hope that you will get our demands fulfilled as soon as possible. If you want, you can talk to the Delhi government and get an official committee formed, in which along with a few concerned officials of the Delhi government, 2 journalists from our team should also be included and this committee should present its report to the government in a timely manner, so that an acceptable solution to the problems of journalists can be found. Hope you will present our problems before the Delhi government, so that the problems of journalists can be resolved.

On this occasion, former Union Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that a memorandum has been given to me through the journalists of Working Journalist of India. He said that in 1995, when there was a BJP government in Delhi, many types of facilities were given to the journalists of Delhi by the government.  Later, the Congress government came to power in Delhi and then the Aam Aadmi Party government came to power. Both these governments had put a stop on the facilities for journalists. Apart from this, he said that now there is a BJP government with full majority in Delhi. He is no longer a part of the government but he will demand from the people sitting in the government that they should take effective steps for the facilities of the journalists of Delhi.

Share this News: