Guwahati: As India has lost nearly 50 working journalists to the
novel corona virus infection aggravated ailments, Journalists’ Forum
Assam (JFA) urges Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce a financial
package to each media victim family as a mark of respect to those
corona-warriors along with the practicing doctors, nurses, sanitation
workers, police personnel, etc.
Terming the country’s loss of corona-warriors as a higher stake
compared to the worldwide media corona-casualties of around 400 till
date, JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria repeated
their appeal to every media person to be careful and follow all
necessary health protocols while reporting the Covid-19 pandemic from
the ground.
Lately the country lost ten journalists to corona-complications in
twenty days. The latest victim surfaced from Ludhiana, where veteran
journalist Ashwani Kapoor (70), who worked for highly circulated
newspaper PunjabKesari, succumbed to Covid-19 at a private hospital on
29 September 2020. Earlier Guwahati based news presenter in All India
Radio Golap Saikia (52) died with corona-infection on 26 September
in the hospital.
Indore based journalist Manoj Binwal (55), who was associated with
Hindi newspaper Prajatantra, died of the virus infection while
undergoing treatment on 20 September. A day back, Agra’s journalist
Ami Adhar Nidar (50), who worked for widely circulated DainikJagaran,
passed away with the infection at a hospital.
Jammu based scribe Anil Srivastava (68), who was associated with
United News of India, succumbed to Covid-19 on 18 September at a
government hospital. Same day Jabalpur’s journalist Harish Choubey
(60), who worked for popular Hindi newspaper DainikBhaskar, expired
with the corona virus infection. Aurangabad based journalist Rahul
Dolare (49) died on 14 September in a government hospital.
Same day, Chennai’s popular journalist-actor Florent C Pereira (67)
died of Covid-19 in the hospital. Punjab’s Abohar based journalist
Naresh Bajaj (57), who was associated with SachKahoon newspaper,
succumbed to the virus complications on 10 September. Ravinder Kumar
(30) from Himachal Pradesh, who worked for DainikJagran, died of the
virus infection on 9 September.
Assam witnessed two journo-victims in the pandemic as Udalguri based
correspondent Dhaneswar Rabha (35) died at Guwahati medical college
hospital on 6 September. Rabha is the first scribe in northeast India
to succumb to Covid-19 complications. Next day, Barak valley’s senior
journalist Ashim Dutta (65) passed away at Silchar medical college
hospital. The printer-publisher of AsomiyaKhabar (Rantu Das) also
died at a Guwahati hospital few days back, who later tested positive
for the virus infection.
Weeks back, Dhanbad’s journalist Sanjiv Sinha, Gorakhpur’s photo
journalist Rajiv Ketan, Mumbai’s senior film-journalist Shyam Sarma,
Nellore’s scribe Narayanam Seshacharyulu, Pune’s television reporter
Pandurang Raikar, Kanpur’s television journalist Neelanshu Shukla,
Patiala’s photojournalist Jai Deep, Tirupati’s television reporter
Madhusudan Reddy and video journalist M Parthasarathy succumbed to the
virus infections.
The list also includes veteran journalist Ashok Churi from Palghar,
television reporter Ramanathan & news videographer E Velmurugan from
Chennai, news presenter Davinder Pal Singh from Chandigarh, television
scribe Manoj Kumar from Hyderabad, print-journalist Pankaj
Kulashrestha from Agra, Orissa’s journalists Simanchal Panda, K Ch
Ratnam and Priyadarshi Patnaik. Kolkata’s photojournalist Ronny Roy
became the first scribe in India to lose his battle against the virus
infection.
