Having kept the local journalists at bay for most of his 15-year-long tenure, barring a few soundbytes to TV reporters, chief minister Naveen Patnaik is all set to woo the journalistic community again by providing health insurance to working journalists in the State who have to bear 50 per cent of the premium. Having allotted government quarters arbitrarily in the last 40 years, the State government is also now deciding on modalities for allocation of government quarters to journalists. Though announced before last year's general and assembly poll, the health insurance scheme has not taken off as yet. But senior officials of the state information and public relations department said that it has now been decided to enroll journalists of approved newspapers and magazines including accredited correspondents as beneficiaries of the scheme which is loosely modelled after the Biju Krushak Kalyan Yojana scheme. [related-post] The BKKY health insurance scheme was launched in 2013 for rural farmers who can get cashless health insurance facility at approved hospitals up to Rs 1 lakh per family. But unlike the BKKY scheme where the government pays the entire premium for the farmers' insurance, the journalists have to pay half of the premia, said the official. They would also have to pay the cost of the smart card necessary for the scheme. he premium required for implementation of the health insurance scheme for the working journalists would be met from the interest accrued from the corpus fund meant for the welfare of journalists. The government however has not decided if unaccredited journalists of TV channels would be eligible for the health insurance scheme as it has got formulated a policy so far. Government sources said that apart from health insurance, the government is now planning to give subsidised government quarters to more journalists. A four-member screening committee chaired by special secretary of the general administration department(which allocates government quarters) would be formed to review and decide the modalities for allocation of government quarters to journalists. Just before the polls last year, the general administration department had announced government quarters for 13 city-based journalists, ranging from reporters of national English dailies to Odia dailies in the heart of the city. The selection of the beneficiaries however had created a division in Bhubaneswar much-divided journalistic fraternity. TI activist Pradip Pradhan, who had filed a PIL in Orissa High Court last year seeking to know on what basis government allocated quarters to journalists and NGOs in Bhubaneswar, said the government has formed screening committee in response to his PIL. "The quarter allotment policy is all arbitrary. Government wants to keep the journalists beholden to it through quarter allocation though the Press Council of India has called such allotment as unethical on part of every journalist," he said. So far successive governments have allocated government quarters to 91 journalists in Bhubaneswar who pay anything between Rs 450 to Rs 950 a month as rent. There have been instances of families of journalists staying put in government quarters even as the original allottee died years ago.
