Hyderabad: The Indian Media Journalists Union held its executive meeting on 13 and 14 September in the auditorium of Taj Mahal Hotel in Hyderabad under the chairmanship of National President Bala Bhaskar S. The meeting was attended by Chief Guest Dr. Marri Raghavaiah (General Secretary, National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR), Special Guests Mr. Kismat Kumar (Former Director of INTR) and Mr. Brahmandabheri Gopa Raju (President, The Journalists Co-operative Housing Society Ltd.), Guests- Mrs. Indirahema and Mrs. Kanakadurga.
The details of the members and state heads of IMJU are as follows- Bala Bhaskar (Telangana), Harikrishna Yadav (Delhi), Ravi Shastri (Karnataka), Mohantara (Tamil Nadu), Krishnamurthy (Punjab), Nagaraju (Karnataka), Ramakrishna (Andhra Pradesh), Santosh Singh Lanjewar (Maharashtra), Ipsit Pratihari (Odisha), Srinivasan (Tamil Nadu), Harsh Gupta (Jammu), Manish Bhardwaj (Rajasthan). Special invitees: Senior journalist Dipendra Chauhan (Nepal), Journalist Mrs. C.A. Jayasinghe Chalani (Sri Lanka) and senior litterateur and poet Chandra Vijay (Jharkhand). Apart from these Senior members of IMJU Naresh Meshram, Abdurajak, Krishnaraju, KBM Raju, Anil Mishra, Tilak Chand, Sushil Kumar and Umashankar Kukreti attended the meeting.
In the two-day meeting of IMJU in Hyderabad, while the unequal pension being given to senior journalists in some states was discussed, concern was expressed over the discrimination against journalists of small and medium newspapers by the state and central government. Along with this, serious discussions were also held on the difficulties being faced by the government due to reduction or abolition of the facilities being provided to journalists.
Chief guest Marri Raghavaiya said that journalists should support the governments and the governments should also take care of the welfare of journalists. Earlier railway passes were available for journalists and eligible journalists used to get discounts in railway tickets, but after Corona, the central government canceled it. He assured that as the largest railway trade union in the country, they will definitely bring this issue to the notice of the central government and work for the restoration of railway passes.
Former INTR Director Kismat Kumar Talking about the interests of journalists, he gave many suggestions and shared his experience of talking and working with journalists while in office. Senior journalist Brahmandabheri Gopa Raju assured the journalists from across the country that he would be ready to provide full support to the journalists to solve the problems arising in the Journalists Housing Co-operative Society.
IMJU National President Balabhaskar S. assured to get pension for all senior journalists by making a written request to the Chief Ministers of those states in which senior journalists are not getting pension till now. Also, he will try to eliminate the discrimination being done with the journalists of small and medium newspapers.
In the end, National General Secretary Harikrishna Yadav thanked all the senior journalists and union representatives from different states while expressing gratitude to senior journalist Dipendra Chauhan from Nepal and journalist C.A. Jayasinghe Chalani from Sri Lanka. He also thanked the Hyderabad team and well-wishers like Subrahmanyam who gave us all family love and affection.
