Honorarium scheme sanctioned for senior journalists working in Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal: The State Government has sanctioned a scheme to give honorarium to senior journalists working in Madhya Pradesh. The government has also released rules, conditions and format of the scheme. Applications for honorarium can be submitted in prescribed proforma at Journalists Welfare Section of Directorate of Public Relations till December 29, 2012. Prescribed proforma of application is available on the website of Directorate of Public Relations www.mpinfo.org.
Rules and conditions of honorarium: Honorarium will be given to such full-time accredited working journalists who have been doing salaried work with any daily/weekly newspaper for minimum 20 years and whose age is 62 years as on July 1, 2012. They will be given Rs. 5 thousand each. Initially, honorarium will be given for five years.
As per the scheme, honorarium will be given to those journalists who are not getting any other regular assistance from the State Government. Accredited journalists will have to submit affidavit that they do not fall in the category of income tax payer. Only those journalists will be eligible for honorarium who have remained accredited by Directorate of Public Relations for minimum 10 years. Each journalist will be entitled for Rs. 5 thousand per month honorarium.
Accredited journalist eligible under the scheme will have to open a saving bank account where the honorarium amount will be deposited per month. For this, a journalist will have to produce necessary documents once a year. There should be no criminal case pending against them. A five-member high-level selection board will be constituted to give recommendation about sanction of honorarium. Recommendations of the committee will not be binding on the State Government.
Entitlement of honorarium can be ended at any time if a beneficiary’s conduct is found violative of norms and principles of journalism or a criminal case is registered against him. Honorarium cases will be reviewed in phases after five years.