Bhubaneswar: Senior Congress legislator Taraprasad Bahinipati on Tuesday raised several issues of journalists in the Odisha Assembly and demanded the government to continue their health insurance scheme.
The previous BJD government had implemented the Gopabandhu Sambadika Swasthya Bima Yojana for working journalists of Odisha.
While speaking inside the House, Bahinipati urged the BJP government to renew the existing health insurance scheme for the scribers. He also demanded to enhance the insured amount to Rs 20 lakh from existing Rs 5 lakh per year.
The Congress leader also demanded for inclusion of parents of the journalists under the Gopabandhu Sambadika Swasthya Bima Yojana.
Further, he urged the BJP government to allow authorised journalists to the lobby of Odisha assembly, which has stopped since the outbreak of Covid-19.
Notably, different delegations of journalists in Odisha met Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi after he assumed office and raised these demands before him.
The renewal of Gopabandhu Sambadika Swasthya Bima Yojana ends in on 31st of August 2024. Since 2018, the government has been providing health insurance of Rs 5 lakh to working journalists and their families in the state.
Every year in August before the insurance expires, journalists get a renewed card for the next year. But after the change of government this year, the card renewal process has not been done sparking resentment among working journalists as there is no proposed expenditure for Gopabandhu Sambadika Swasthya Bima Yojana in this year’s budget.
For the health insurance of working journalists, the state government has tied up with Heritage Health Insurance and other organizations. The card is renewed every year to include new journalists. Earlier the application for this was done through offline mode but from last year the application is done through online mode.
On the other hand, since the current insurance period expires by the end of August, journalists cannot get health insurance after 10 days. Also, Information and Public Relations Department is yet to provide any information in this regard.
The Gopabandhu Sambadika Swasthya Bima Yojana initially provided medical benefits up to Rs 2 lakh to working journalists and their families. The then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik increased the insurance amount from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh after journalists demanded to increase the amount. A total of 8717 working journalists of the state and their families are benefiting from this scheme.
