MRG demands medical insurance for scribes, frontline workers
Correspondent
CHENNAI, June 29 2020 (HS): The Madras Reporters Guild (Chennai Nirubargal Sangam) has urged the Tamil Nadu Government to provide a comprehensive scheme of medical Insurance cover, frequent testing and PPE to the frontline workers that include media persons and their families, nurses, doctors, police officers, paramedical staff, government officials and NGOs involved in relief operations.
President of Madras Reporters Guild, R Rangaraj said that the Guild has further requested to create a State Register of Frontline Personnel (SROFT) to ensure regular monitoring of these personnel and prevent them from getting infected with the virus and to monitor their health status and to grant Rs 1 crore relief to the families in case of death of any frontline worker.
SROFT Register must include media personnel, doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and employees of the hospitals and dispensaries handling COVID-19 patients, police personnel in frontline, government staff in frontline operations and conservancy staff of corporations, municipalities and panchayats.
Madras Reporters Guild has condoled death of Velmurugan who was working as a cameraperson with Raj TV, a well known entertainment and news television channel based in Chennai and thanked Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami for sanctioning Rs 5 lakh to the family of the deceased.
A second scheme which is urged by the Reporters Guild is the longstanding demand to provide comprehensive medical insurance for all media persons without any income restriction, the premium to be borne by the State Government. He added that for enrolment in the medical insurance scheme, the option of not choosing it should also be open to employees if they have sufficient cover under the medical scheme of their respective institutions.