THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The colleges in Goa will set up journalism clubs with the help of Goa Union of Journalists (GUJ) and the Goa government. GUJ had placed many proposals before the government and some of which have been accepted, according to the GUJ press release on Wednesday. The announcement of formation of journalism clubs in the colleges was formally done in the Budget speech by the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
Sawant also announced the extension of apprenticeship program to registered media houses wherein one apprentice per registered media house will be allocated through the Department of Information and Publicity of the Goa government. The chief minister has also announced a full family pension on par with the monthly journalist pension amount of Rs 10,000 under the Goa State Working Journalist Welfare Scheme.
GUJ will submit a separate proposal to the government on the up-skilling of full-time working journalists working in the State of Goa. Earlier, a delegation from the Goa Union of Journalists led by the president Rajtilak Naik, and treasurer Amresh Parab, had submitted a list of demands to the chief minister.
The demands included proposal to establish GUJ Journalism Clubs in colleges across Goa, raise the journalist’s monthly pension amount from Rs10,000 pm to Rs15,000 pm with focus primarily on a decent family pension, proposal to extend the apprenticeship program of the government of Goa to all Goa-based registered media houses wherein Goan youths can be trained as journalists over a period of one year with stipend. There was also a proposal to provide housing for full-time working journalists and new office premises for the Goa Union of Journalists, besides the proposed Patrakar Bhavan.
