Port Blair, Aug 12: Batting for the rights of local journalists, the Congress unit of Andaman and Nicobar Islands has urged the Lt. Governor of this Union Territory to provide better facilities to local journalists.
“Local journalists of A & N Islands are no less than their mainland counterparts. But they hardly get any facilities or benefits from government as journalists of Mainland India are getting,” Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma, the President of Pradesh Congress Committee said in a letter addressed to the Lt. Governor of A & N Islands.
In his letter, Mr. Sharma added that the Congress party has demanded a well equipped press room, Transportation Concession, Concession in Government run Guest Houses, regular training programmes, Pension Benefits and financial grants to various associations of media organisations.
Journalists in Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been demanding for these facilities since last several decades.
Journalists facing challenges like remoteness, lack of connectivity between remote Islands, poor internet connectivity had even raised their problems with various ministries in New Delhi in recent past.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands have more than 40 newspapers and also has media representatives from almost all major media organisations of Mainland India.
The President of Pradesh Congress Committee has urged the Lt. Governor to look into issue on priority so that journalists based in these remote Islands could perform their duties in a more professional manner.
