Chandigarh, Apr 23 (IANS): Saying the print media would always remain relevant and credible, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday announced to increase the monthly pension for state-based field journalists from Rs 10,000 to Rs 11,000.

Also the pension amount would increase in proportion to the increase in dearness allowance (DA) annually on an automation mode.

Khattar said this while addressing the second day of the All India Media Meet of the confederation of newspapers and news agencies here.

The Chief Minister received a warm welcome and honoured by Tribune Employees' Union President Anil Gupta.

To meet the emerging challenges in the print media industry, the Chief Minister promised to enable a conducive work atmosphere for the field journalists by ensuring the requisite wherewithal from the government.

He said the print media would always remain relevant and credible, and the stakeholders need to rise to the occasion.

The Chief Minister said the state government is providing a number of incentives to mediapersons for enabling them to discharge their duties effectively and these include free monthly bus travel up to 4,000 km, expanding the ambit of Ayushman Bharat Yojana to the dependents of journalists, media centres equipped with modern facilities and pension.

"Apart from the field mediapersons, we have plans to include desk journalists with all such welfare schemes." He said the media being the fourth pillar of the world's largest democracy, "we will assure all possible assistance for them to discharge their duties".