Telangana for Rs 10 crore fund to journalists

Hyderabad: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday said the government will soon set up Journalists Welfare Fund with a corpus of Rs 10 crore. He said the amount will be sanctioned in the first TS annual Budget to be tabled in the Legislative Assembly in October. He said the amount will be utilised solely for the welfare of journalists and their families. Mr Rao held a marathon meeting for over two hours to discuss on various issues concerning journalists at Secretariat on Thursday. Chairman of Telangana Press

Academy Mr Allam Narayana and senior officials from CMO and information and public relations department were present in the meeting. Mr Rao said the government will also issue health cards to accredited journalists similar to that of state government employees. The government is planning to provide free medical treatment in all the private and corporate hospitals up to Rs 2 lakh to employees and their families.

It was also decided to issue new Telangana State media accreditation cards to journalists replacing the old cards issued by AP government. The issue of allotting housing sites to journalists also came up for discussion. Officials told CM that this has been pending since 2008 as it got stuck up in legal disputes though then YSR government issued orders allotting nearly 70 acres to journalists. Mr Rao asked officials to convene a full-fledged meeting to discuss on journalist issues after Medak Lok Sabha bypoll.