Demands uniformity in distribution of advertisements to newspapers
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: A press conference was organised by Jammu Newspaper Editor’s Guild chaired by Raj Daluja, Chairman (Editor-in-Chief STATE TIMES) and AK Sawhney, President (Chief Patron JOURNEY LINE) regarding issues and problems being faced by print media of Jammu.
A.K Sawhney while addressing the press said that the members of JNEG had decided not to publish Non-Budgeting Advertisement of Jammu and Kashmir Government issued by Directorate of Information and Public Relations as the bills of Non-Budgeting Advertisement are given Dasti (by hand) to publications to collect the payments from the departments directly, which practice is ridiculous and unacceptable.
He said let the department should make appropriate arrangements to pay to Newspaper Publishers/ Owners/ Editors and collect NIT from the departments as the Information department is the nodal department for advertisements as per the Govt of J&K’s Orders.
Sawhney said that they have many times requested Government for timely release of due payments to the newspapers so that they can disburse the salaries to employees in this pandemic situation.
He also said that Finance Minister, Govt of India too assured that within 45 days all dues will be cleared regarding Govt payments but nothing has been done qua the payments to the newspaper Industry.
The payments are not being disbursed on time, which has led to a lot of suffering for the publishers and owners and consequent suffering for the staff.
Sawhney said that there is no uniformity in distribution of advertisements by Information Department. The issuance of advertisement reflects malpractices as allotment of Govt advertisements is done arbitrarily without following any rationale. The public money is being distributed in arbitrary and choicest manner.
Sawhney also demanded a Press Colony for the media fraternity of Jammu. He also said that government should also roll out insurance schemes for working journalists.
While addressing media persons, Sawhney said like any other UTs Jammu and Kashmir should also apply the DAVP rate/size structure to newspapers.
Raj Daluja, Chairman JNEG while addressing media persons said that he called on Yatish Yadav, Senior media consultant to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and raised the issues and problems of Newspaper Industry.
During the meeting Daluja raised the issue of release of Non-Budgeting Advertisement of Jammu and Kashmir Government for which the publications have to collect the payments from the departments directly, which practice is ridiculous and unacceptable. Daluja also raised the issue of empanelment of newspapers by Directorate of Information and Public Relations as no new newspaper from Jammu has been empanelled from long time despite published regularly.
Yatish Yadav gave a patient hearing to Daluja and assured him of resolving the issues on priority basis.
The JNEG further said that they will soon meet Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha to discuss other problems being faced by Guild members due to high handedness of Information Department.
The other members present during the presser were Ram Kumar Dubey (Editor Kattu Satya), Subash Mehra (Editor Jammu Jotting), Syed Iqbal Kazmi (Editor Daily Udaan), Vijay Gupta (Editor Young Bites), Vishal Chopra (Editor Jammu Metro), Amit Sawhney (Editor Journey Line), Rajiv Mahajan (Editor Top News) and Vinod Kumar (Editor Truly Times), Sanjeev Chadha (Editor Zinda Sach), Vikul Gupta (Editor State Anylist), Vicky Singh (Editor Khalsa Express) and Puneet Arora (Editor Early Post).