The Jagan Mohan Reddy government in AP is victimising the journalists for the past two years.
With anger or grudge or revenge on the media houses, mostly the owners, the Jagan government had taken some initiatives which have ended up in victimising the journalists.
The government had not issued the Accreditation cards, usually given to the scribes on request by the editor and the media house.
The practice has been there and has been the same across the country.
The Accreditation card makes journalist eligible to enter into any public place, including government offices, and be present during the VIPs visits.
The introduction of health scheme for journalists had also made this accreditation card mandatory to get any benefit from the health scheme.
Besides this, the journalists are allowed to travel free within their districts and on payment of one-third of the fare in other districts, in all the RTC services.
However, with Jagan Mohan Reddy taking over, the government had initially extended the term of the Accreditation cards by a year and it went for some more months.
Later, the government had framed rules where it asked the journalists to submit the evidences (work experience) to get new card.
Most of the journalists, who could not preserve the cards issued earlier, could not get the new cards.
The issue was also taken to the court and is in pending for judgement.
In the meanwhile, the poor journalists working in Mandals, could not get the facility to travel free in the RTC buses in their working area.
Some journalists have also failed to get the health scheme renewed for them, not to mention that not many journalists who suffered covid and who died were not paid any insurance.
Ultimately, with some anger on the media owners, the Jagan government is victimising the poor journalists. What a pity!
