Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday declared all the working journalists in the State as frontline Covid warriors. The decision will benefit 6944 working journalists of the State.
Approving a proposal to this effect, the Chief Minister said that working journalists are ‘doing a great service to the State by providing seamless news feed, making people aware of issues relating to Covid at this very trying times and they are great support for our war against Covid’.
It may be mentioned here that as many as 6944 working journalists of the state have been covered under Gopabandhu Sambadika Swasthya Bima Yojana. They are getting health insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh each.
Besides, an ex gratia of Rs 15 lakh is also being provided to the next of kin of journalists who die of Covid while performing duty.
A senior Bhubaneswar-based journalist Pritiman Mohapatra had succumbed to the virus on Saturday. Two days ago, Debendra Samantaray, another veteran journalist working with a Odia daily newspaper in Sambalpur district, also died.
Odisha has so far lost 12 journalists to Covid-19 in the past one month, said a report of Hindustan Times.
Earlier on Saturday, Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat had declared the journalists of his State as ‘frontline workers’ making them eligible for Covid-19 vaccination without any age restrictions.