TNI Bureau: A delegation of the Utkal Journalists Association (UJA), Odisha yesterday met V. K. Pandian, the Chairman 5T (Transformational Initiatives) and Nabin Odisha and discussed with him about their five-points charter of demands.
A 35-member delegation under the leadership of President of the association Bibhuti Bhusan Kar, Advisor Papu Mohanty, Pradosh Patnaik, Sriram Das, the UJA General Secretary Benudhar Panda, disciplinary committee chairman Srikkant Khatei, working presidents Purnachandra Nayak, Haradhan Banarjee and Pramod Kumar Patnaik, vice-presidents Rashmiranjan Tripathy, Pradeep Kumar Tripathy and Satyanaryan Mishra, secretaries Biswajit Nayak and Madan Pani as well as Senior Journalist and Bhasha Andolan Convenor Pabitra Maharatha met VK Pandian at Naveen Niwas and discuss about issues of the journalists.
They demanded pension for the journalists, and journalists protection acts, inclusion of parents and children above 25 years of age in the health scheme, and formation of press academy.
The delegation also thanked the Chairman 5T and Nabin Odisha for providing ex-gratia to the deceased journalists’ family members during the COVID pandemic and increasing the money under the health scheme to Rs 5 Lakh.
Rajya Sabha MP Manas Mangaraj was present during the meeting.