Media’s active role emphasized on government-public wellbeing

Guwahati: As the Union government has continued implementing various welfare schemes for the benefit of common Indians, the downtrodden section in the society should access to those schemes and here the media can play a vital role, said Ansumwi Khunguri Boro, executive member of Bodoland Territorial Council while addressing a media interactive session at Baksa locality of western Assam.

“We, the government and the media alike, should ensure that people are aware of the various Government programmes and schemes so that they can avail benefits of those schemes. There are a huge range of schemes being implemented by the government nowadays whose main objective is to make the citizens’ lives better,” added Mr Boro.

Organized by the Press Information Bureau’s Guwahati office in collaboration with the Baksa district administration on 14 December 2018 at Musalpur town, the media interactive workshop titled ‘Vartalap’ was also addressed by the host district magistrate Sanjeeb Kumar Gogoi.

“Baksa is now considered as an aspirational district and hence we have to put extra efforts in all developmental spheres so that the residents can get benefits from various government schemes. The journalists should play a proactive role in making the public aware of these welfare schemes,” said Gogoi.

He also informed that the district has recently received appreciations for its excellent coverage of government schemes among the public. Mentioning about the Ujjala scheme, Gogoi stated that 90% of Baksa households were covered, where gas connection initiative covered 100% homes in the district.

“In the field of animal husbandry and agriculture too, Baksa has achieved significant success. I appreciate the initiative of media persons here that because of them we could succeed disseminating related information about these policies affectively,” added the deputy commissioner.

KS Dhatwalia, director general for NE Zone in the Union information & broadcasting ministry, while addressing the participating journalists of around 50 from different parts of the district, pointed out that Vartalap was an attempt to sensitize the media about disseminating proper information to the common people. He expected a positive and constructive media across the nation.

Journalist Nava Thakuria also emphasized on a responsible and credible media for the nation, where the scribes have to play the driver’s role in the changing faces of journalism across the globe. He stated that the internet connectivity has made reporting easier, but also posed a serious threat to the professional journalists.

“The role of a journalist has simply grown as we are increasing our family members with the increasing number of internet users in India. Now the media is held accountable for every word we write or speak. So it becomes extremely important to present facts without any bias,” said Thakuria adding that the tendency of some journalists to denounce India as a nation is condemnable, even though they can criticize the regime in New Delhi.

Jolly Das Brahma, additional principal secretary of Baksa, Dr Abhijit Basu, joint director in DPMU, Kailash Deka, district agriculture officer, BM Roy, PHE executive engineer, Lalit Basumatary & Bhupen Das from district elementary education department also addressed the gathering and spoke on various government schemes in different areas. Gopajit Das from the PIB Guwahati, Anshumi Mahilary & Hemchandra Pathak from the government PR department also attended the program.