State government is providing better facilities to the journalists of the state – Subodh Uniyal

Today journalism itself has become an agenda: Yogesh Bhatt

Amaanullah Usmani

Dehradun – Uttarakhand’s Forest and Environment Minister Subodh Uniyal said that a clean environment is required to live a pure life and it is the duty or responsibility of all of us to maintain it. Uniyal was expressing his views as the chief guest on the occasion of the inauguration of the two-day national convention of Indian Journalist Union (IJU), New Delhi at a hotel on Ring Road.

After lighting the lamp and inaugurating this two-day national convention of IJU, Cabinet Minister Subodh Uniyal said that Uttarakhand state is not only the holy land of gods but is also a naturally beautiful and attractive state. This state has been providing pure environment to all and has also been a leading state in providing its natural beauty and pure environment to the whole country. He said that this Himalayan state is naturally covered, along with Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri, Gangotri, there is also Kaliyar Sharif, the holy place of Sikhs and Muslim community. All these places have always been giving the message of harmonious environment. Linking the environment to the society, he said that the role of media becomes very important to make the public aware in this direction. Addressing the national convention of IJU, he highlighted the role of media in the society and described its role as important and said that the Uttarakhand government is providing better facilities to the journalists of the state.

He said that the pension given to journalists earlier was Rs. 5,000 per month, which has been increased to Rs. 8,000 per month by the state government. Apart from this, the state government has also started providing housing to many journalists. In the convention, he assured to provide facilities to the journalists on behalf of the government and announced that the government is working on providing facilities to the journalists in the guest house of the forest department. In the opening session of the convention, Union’s National President Shri K. Srinivas Reddy, former National President Shri S.N. Sinha, former National President Shri Amar Devulapalli, National Secretary Jai Singh Rawat and MLA Umesh Sharma Kau also expressed their views on this occasion.

The second session of the convention began with reflection and contemplation on the deteriorating nature of journalism and its directionlessness, in which the keynote speaker, State Information Commissioner Shri Yogesh Bhatt said that today journalism itself has become an agenda. In today’s convention, he criticized both media and journalism and said that in fact journalism has become politicized today, which is a matter of great concern for the journalism community. How should our country’s democracy be? And who is the biggest journalist today?Many such questions are before us today. Reflecting on this, he said that the form of journalism today is worrisome and today there should be discussion and contemplation on journalists and journalism. He also said that media and journalism are different, but today both have been mixed up, which is a matter of concern and needs to be contemplated upon.

On this occasion, former Chief Minister Harish Rawat, indirectly pointing towards the conditions of the country, said that the growth of the country is not healthy today. Healthy steps will have to be taken in this direction. Emphasizing on the role of the ruling party and the opposition, he said that today while the ruling party is strong, the opposition should also remain completely strong, so that the fear of each other remains in parallel regarding the development work of the country. He described the voice being raised by the media journalism world of Uttarakhand in the state as commendable and said that the state government should also never ignore the comforts of journalists and the media world. He has demanded from the government that it should show seriousness on providing cashless facility for the treatment of journalists as well as insurance of journalists.

The chief guest of this second session, Director General of Information, Shri Banshidhar Tiwari said that the government has taken many decisions on the demands raised by the journalists. The state government has always been serious about the problems of journalists. He said that now the recognition of journalists will also be done at the tehsil and district level. The amount of journalist welfare fund has also been increased from 5 crores to 10 crores by the government. On this occasion, Director General of Information Banshidhar Tiwari also announced that the government will give Rs. 5 lakh to the deceased journalist Durga Prasad Nautiyal.

Today, in the first day of the convention, the main organizer of the program and President of Journalist Union of Uttarakhand, State Uma Shankar Praveen Mehta, General Secretary Girish Pant, District President Mohammad Shah Nazar, Anil Verma, Manmohan Lakhera, Brahmadatt Sharma, Lalita Baluni, Moolchand, Virendra Gairola, Prakash Pant, Zahid Ali, Adhir Mukherjee, Sheeshpal Rawat, SP Uniyal, Rajendra Verma, Vinay Bhatt, Shravan Kumar, Vijay Kumar Sharma and other journalists were present.