New Delhi, May 27 (IANS): The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has approved financial assistance to 67 families of journalists who lost their lives to the Covid-19 pandemic. Each family will receive Rs 5 lakh under the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS) of the ministry.

A ministry panel has decided to hold JWS meetings on a weekly basis to process the applications expeditiously.

In a suo-moto move, the Press Information Bureau under the guidance of Minister of Information & Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar, had compiled and collated the details of journalists who lost their lives due to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and started a special drive to provide assistance to their families under the Journalist Welfare Scheme.

On Thursday, the Central Government approved a proposal of Journalist Welfare Scheme Committee headed by Amit Khare, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, to provide financial relief of Rs.5 lakh to each of the families of 26 journalists who died due to Covid-19.

In the financial year 2020-21, the Central Government provided such assistance to 41 families of the journalists deceased due to Covid taking the total number to 67. The committee expressed their deep condolences to the families of the journalists affected due to Covid.

The Press Information Bureau pro-actively reached out to the families of many journalists who lost their lives to Covid-19 and also guided them about the scheme and filing of claims.

The Committee on Thursday also considered applications of 11 families of those journalists who had passed away due to reasons other than Covid-19.

Journalists and their families can apply for assistance under the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS) through the PIB website-https://accreditation.pib.gov.in/jws/default.aspx.