I&B ministry approves Rs 5 lakh assistance to kin of 67 journalists who died of COVID-19

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday approved a proposal to provide financial assistance to families of 26 more journalists who lost their lives to COVID-19.

Dependents of each of these journalists will get the financial relief of Rs 5 lakh under the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B), the government said in a statement.

Today, the central government approved a proposal of the Journalist Welfare Scheme committee, headed by I&B ministry secretary Amit Khare, to provide financial relief of Rs 5 lakh to each of the families of 26 journalists who died due to COVID-19, the ministry said.

The committee also considered the applications of families of 11 journalists who had passed away due to reasons other than the infection, it said.

The committee has decided to hold meetings on a weekly basis so that applications for financial assistance under the JWS can be processed expeditiously, the ministry added.