COVID-19 : Assam Congress seeks stimulus package for media industry

Congress in Assam on Thursday sought a stimulus package from the Centre for the media industry, with a focus on print media in order to help them tide over the crisis resulted from COVID-19 and the lockdown.

The party unit also demanded that journalists should also be covered under the insurance scheme announced for frontline workers fighting the COVID-19 in Assam.

"Media personnel are frontline warriors, not only during this period of the global pandemic but also during any time of crisis. They and their families should not be made to suffer on account of temporary losses faced by media houses. In Assam too, the media, and especially, the print media, have played a vital role in nation-building since the pre-Independence era. As such, the

Assam government should also take steps to help the local and regional media houses of the state. Some sort of subsidy or stimulus to local and regional media houses will come handy to revive the sector at this crucial moment," president of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), Ripun Bora said in a statement.

He said that journalists, like health workers, police and security personnel, and other emergency services staff, are working round the clock in Assam at this time of pandemic to bring news to the public and help the government in the fight to prevent the spread of COVID-19. "So, journalists and media personnel of Assam should be immediately brought under the coverage of the health insurance scheme announced recently by the state government for staffs of other frontline and emergency services," Bora said.