Though Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya lost journalists to the COVID crisis, no state government in the Northeast has sanctioned a single rupee to the victim-families.
TFM Desk
Indian Journalists Union (IJU), while appealing to the Union government to declare working journalists as frontline warriors, has urged all states and union territories to separately announce compensations to the families of COVID-media victims. The national union of scribes lauded the state governments, which have already paid compensations to the beneficiaries.
Northeast India has lost at least 20 scribes due to COVID-19 since the pandemic hit the country in March 2020, informed Nava Thakuria, an IJU enthusiast and India representative to the Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign (PEC). Besides three scribes, who died while working outside the region, all others succumbed to virus infection aggravated ailments, while performing their duty as COVID warriors.
Though Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim have not reported any journo-death because of the heath disaster till date, Assam witnessed the highest number of COVID casualties among media persons (thirteen editor-journalists). Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya also lost their journalists to the COVID crisis. But no state government in the region has sanctioned a single rupee to the victim-families.
“The Assam government initially announced that it would include the corona-media victims in the list of Rs 50 lakh life insurance scheme beneficiaries along with the other front-line warriors, but lately it remains unusually silent over the commitment,” said a statement issued by IJU president K Sreenivas Reddy and secretary-general Balwinder Singh Jammu, adding that other north-eastern states should also come forward offering adequate compensations to affected journo-families.
It may be mentioned that the Odisha government has offered Rs 15 lakh to each family, which lost a working journalist due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Punjab governments have announced Ra 10 lakh each to such victim families. Both Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh governments announced Rs 5 lakh each, followed by Bihar government Rs 4 lakh and Telangana government Rs 2 lakh aid to kin of journalists who died due to COVID complications.