Scribes demand welfare benefits, stage protest

Rajendranagar: To push the long-pending demand of Journalists, the scribes in Rajendranagar, Saidabad, Charminar, Chandrayangutta, Asif Nagar and Balapur staged dharnas at MRO Offices on Thursday. They urged the government to fulfill all the promises it had made after the formation of Telangana State.

Scribes from print and electronic media under Telangana Union of Working Journalists (affiliated to IJU) have gathered in a big number to raise their voice against the negligent attitude of the government in implementing the welfare schemes for the Journalists in the last five years.

House sites or two-bedroom houses and health and accreditation cards are some of the core issues that were raised during the protest. "TRS Government made tall promises to provide justice to the journalists by implementing all the welfare schemes meant for their development, but to our dismay, no such attempts have been made in letter and spirit since the formation of Telangana," they said.

They pointed out that the government should ensure that health cards are provided to the scribes that are accepted in all the hospitals, irrespective of their income levels.

"The corporate hospitals are not yet ready to provide medical facilities to Journalists with health cards, issued by the government, and the network hospitals under the scheme have lacked sufficient treatment facilities, making it hard for the scribes and their family members to get the benefits," they said.