Cutting across party line, members in the Assembly on Wednesday expressed concern over the plight of the working journalists and demanded that the Government should fulfill their seven-pointcharter of demands immediately.
The issue came in for a marathon discussion for about one and a halfhours during Zero hour in the House which witnessed noisy scenes. Raising the issue, leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh said sincejournalists perform an important task in society building, they should be provided minimum facilities.
Despite the fact that journalists perform their duty in collecting information in most adverse situations like flood and cyclone and Maoist infested areas, the Government is depriving them of minimum welfare facilities like accommodation, pension and health insurance, etc, Singh regretted.
He said the Congress Government had earlier provided housing facility to the accredited journalists, but it was discontinued by the present Government. Even the Accreditation Committee and the Advisory Committee of the journalists were suspended for the last ten years, he lamented.
He said while the Central Government and the State Governments of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Punjab were providing a series of welfare measures, the Odisha Government should take a leaf and make similar arrangements. He demanded a statement from the I and PR Minister in the House immediately.
Supporting the leader of Opposition, as many as 23 members from both Opposition and Treasury Bench cutting across party lines urged the Government to concede to the scribes' demand which they said as “genuine”. While BJD members Pradeep Maharathy, Prafulla Chandra Ghadai, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak , Amar Satapathy and others said that the Government should not neglect the journalists, Government Chief Whip Pravat Tripathy informed that the Chief Minister had already constituted a high level official committee headed by the Chief Secretary to look into the demands of the scribes and hoped the Government would do justice to them. Sharing the concern of the House, Raghunath Mohanty, who was on the Chair, directed I and PR Minister Arun Sahoo to make a statement before the end of the current session.