Bhubaneswar: Following approval from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the State Information and Public Relations Department has released Rs 55.50 lakh as compensation/financial assistance to the families of seven working journalists from the Journalist Welfare Fund.
Of the sanctioned amount, Rs 15 lakh each was disbursed to the families of three working journalists who died of COVID-19. They are Ashok Kumar Sahu, correspondent of Manthan newspaper in Jajpur district, Dhirendra Rout of Odisha Bhaskar and Solomon Sahu, representative of EPA Weekly.
Earlier, the state government had disbursed Rs 15 lakh financial assistance each to the families of six journalists who succumbed to COVID-19.
The State Government has also sanctioned Rs 2 lakh for the treatment of Freelance Journalists Ambika Kanungo and Rs 50,000 for Rajendra Mohanty. The families of Radhanath Mohapatra of Nitidin and Pravat Das of Pratidin were provided financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh each.
The State Government is awarding Rs 15 lakh compensation for families of journalists who succumb to COVID-19 and Rs 4 lakh for non-Covid deaths. So far, 6,944 journalists have been enrolled under Gopabandhu Journalist Health Insurance Scheme.
