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Guwahati: Indian Journalists Union (IJU), the largest representative trade union body of journalists in the country has urged the Union government in New Delhi to treat journalists as frontline warriors in the fight against Covid-19 and enable them to get vaccine on priority basis.
Meanwhile IJU welcomes the decision of New Delhi to provide corona vaccine to people free of cost at all government hospitals and pegging cost of vaccine in private hospitals at as little as rupees 250 a dose, said IJU president K Sreenivas Reddy and secretary-general Balwinder Singh Jammu.
Drawing thegovernment’s notice to the fact that hundreds of journalists in the line of duty across Bharat had succumbed to the virus infection, both the IJU leaders claimed that without the contribution of media persons in the field the fight against the pandemic would not have succeeded the way Bharat did it.
Reporting from ground zero made journalists vulnerable like other frontline warriors and in view of the fact the fight has still a long way to go, it is the duty of the government to provide the working journalists with vaccine shield. They also urged New Delhi to issue suitable instructions to all State governments and union territories to give priority jab to scribes.
The announcement of the Centre last year through PIB that families of journalists who died because of Covid-19 complications would be given an assistance of rupees five lakhs under the journalist welfare scheme was a welcome step, commented the IJU leaders.
But the scheme largely went unnoticed for lack of adequate publicity. Hence they requested the government to arrange proper publicity to the scheme through the information departments of all regions so that eligible families of victim journalists could avail the benefit.
