New Delhi, May 27: In a suo-moto move, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Press Information Bureau under the guidance of Hon’ble Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Sh. Prakash Javadekar, had compiled and collated the details of journalists who lost their lives due to the pandemic in the years 2020 & 2021 and started a special drive to provide assistance to their families under the Journalist Welfare Scheme.

Today, the Central Government approved a proposal of Journalist Welfare Scheme Committee headed by Sh. Amit Khare, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, to provide financial relief of Rs.5lakh to each of the families of 26 journalists who died due to Covid-19. In the financial year 2020-21, the Central Government provided such assistance to 41 families of the  journalists deceased due to Covid taking the total number to 67. Committee expressed their deep condolences to the families of the journalists affected due to Covid.

The Press Information Bureau pro-actively reached out to the families of many journalists who lost their lives to Covid-19  and also guided them about  the scheme and filing of claims.

The committee also decided to hold JWS meetings on weekly basis so that applications for financial assistance under JWS can be processed expeditiously.

The Committee today also considered applications of 11 families of those journalists who had passed away due to reasons other than Covid-19.

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

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.