The Hindu : National : Hooda announces incentives for journalists

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Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008
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Hooda announces incentives for journalists

Special Correspondent

Opens Rs. One- crore hi-tech Media Centre at the Haryana Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh

Institutes Lifetime Achievement Award for senior journalist
Ex-gratia out of Journalist Welfare Fund in case of sudden death

CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday announced plans to institute a Lifetime Achievement Award for a senior journalist besides a bonanza of other incentives for media persons including grant of press accreditation facility at the block level.

Addressing a press conference after dedicating the newly set up hi-tech Media Centre on the Eighth Floor of the Haryana Civil Secretariat, he said the centre was spread over an area of 7,000 sq. feet and had been set up at a cost of about Rs.1 crore.

He said those who were basically associated with journalism and those whose main source of income was journalism would get financial assistance from the Journalist Welfare Fund irrespective of the fact whether they were accredited or not by the State Government.

He said that in case of sudden death of a journalist or any person associated with journalism, an ex-gratia sum would be provided to his or her next of kin out of the Journalist Welfare Fund.

He also announced that a separate Press Accreditation Cell and Press Facility Cell would be functional from this coming New Year.

For the first time, he said, media persons would be provided with electronic lockers thus giving them one GB space to store their data.

Asserting that the Press Room set up at the Media Centre was the first of its kind in the public sector in the country, he said it was equipped with computers with Internet facility; fax machines besides 30 physical lockers which would be allotted to media persons. It also had a theatre system and a wide-screen LCD TV sets equipped with Tata Sky and cable network. A Centrex telephone system had been installed through which any media person could directly ring up any officer of the Haryana Information and Public Relations Department.

Mr. Hooda said work to set up a hi-tech web studio was in progress at the Centre and it would be functional within a couple of months.

He announced that electronic press notes would be issued from January 1 and Haryana would be the first State to introduce such a system in the country.

Pay issue

The Chief Minister disclosed that the State Government would soon get a report from the committee headed by Chief Secretary Dharam Vir about implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission for State Government employees.

He said the Government was dealing with about 225 pending applications pertaining to anomalies in pay scales. The recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission would be implemented only after disposing of these applications, he added.

On the report to be given by the committee constituted under the chairmanship of Agriculture Minister H. S. Chatha regarding constitution of a separate Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee in Haryana, he said it was still awaited.

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