Health, accreditation cards for scribes in Telangana soon
The Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has skipped discussion on proposed restrictions on media’s entry into Secretariat at the three-hour long meeting held at Press Academy office on Saturday. Although journalists tried to seek explanation from Rao, he did not reveal his plans leaving many questions of the journalists unanswered.
No clarity on media curbs inside Secretariat
Hyderabad: The Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has skipped discussion on proposed restrictions on media’s entry into Secretariat at the three-hour long meeting held at Press Academy office on Saturday. Although journalists tried to seek explanation from Rao, he did not reveal his plans leaving many questions of the journalists unanswered.
Rao personally visited Press Academy office in Nampally for the afternoon meeting. Editors and senior journalists of news channels and publications besides leaders of Telangana Union of Working Journalists (TUWJ) took part and expressed their views. Chandrashekar Rao has agreed to give health cards to all working journalists and accreditation cards to journalists (on field duty) soon.
For this purpose, a nine-member committee comprising noted journalists was constituted to formulate modalities for issuing health and accreditation cards. The Chief Minister has assured the meeting to deposit Rs 10 crore (already announced in the budget) in Press Academy account by Monday. He informed that Rs 10 crore more would be allocated for Journalists Welfare Fund in ensuing budget.
He revealed his intentions to enhance the Journalists Welfare Fund from Rs 10 crore to Rs 100 crore in the future. Apart from these issues, journalists raised about pending house-sites issue. Rao felt that house-sites at a far-off distance from the city would not be that useful due to commuting difficulties. He, however, said that he has plans to build 3BHK apartments for journalists in the city in the next three years.
The Chief Minister has assured journalists to meet once again to have an elaborated discussion on house-sites and journalists bhavan issue. Meanwhile, Telangana Press Academy Chairman Allam Narayana and other journalists who participated in the meeting thanked the Chief Minister for his initiative to solve issues of journalists. They said Rao achieved the distinction of the first chief minister who visited Press Academy office in Nampally.
