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Guwahati: One more television scribe died of novel coronavirus infections in Maharashtra on 2 September 2020 to increase the Covid-19casualties within the media fraternity as journalists continue playing the roleof corona warriors along with the practicing doctors, nurses, sanitationworkers and police personnel in the pandemic.
Pune based scribe Pandurang Raikar (42), who worked for TV9news channel, succumbed to Covid-19 complications at a hospital in his hometownof Ahmednagar. Tested positive in theantigen test on 30 August, Raikar was taken to a private hospital, but thefamily alleged that the Ahmednagar hospital delayed his treatment. Raikar leftbehind his wife, two kids and a host of relatives.
As casualties among media families grow across the country,Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) appeals to every scribe to be cautious andcareful while reporting from the ground to safeguarding themselves with theirfamilies. The forum meanwhile urged theUnion government in New Delhi to announce a comprehensive insurance package forthe media corona warriors.
Earlier, another television journalist Neelanshu Shukla (30) died of Covid-complications on 31 August. Hailed from Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Shukla wasassociated with AajTak. Maharashtra’s veteran journalist Ashok Churi, whoedited Marathi weekly PalgharTimes, died at a Palghar based hospital, wholater tested positive for Covid-19. The printer-publisher of AsomiyaKhabar(Rantu Das) also died at a Guwahati hospital, who tested positive for the virus infection. New Delhi basedscribe Tarun Sisodia killed himselfundergoing treatment at AIIMS.
Patiala (Punjab) based photojournalist Jai Deep,Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh) based television reporter Madhusudan Reddy &video journalist M Parthasarathy, Chennai (Tamil Nadu) based televisionreporter Ramanathan and Orissa’s journalists namely Simanchal Panda, K ChRatnam & Priyadarshi Patnaik, Chennai based news videographer E Velmurugan,Chandigarh based news presenter Davinder Pal Singh, Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh)based television scribe Manoj Kumar, Agra (UP) based journalist PankajKulashrestha and Kolkata (West Bengal) based photojournalist Ronny Roy alsolost their battles against the virus.
“It’s time to be careful for everyone. Over one hundredAssam based media persons have already turned positive for the virusinfection,” said a statement issued by JFA president Rupam Barua and secretaryNava Thakuria adding that shockingly the worrisome development was not reported by the concernednews papers, news channels and digital platforms properly even though a fewinfected media persons made personalrevelations in the social media.
