A PIL was moved in the Delhi High Court on Monday to provide medical insurance cover to media persons who are reporting on coronavirus.
As per reports, the plea by advocate ArpitBhargava was mentioned for urgent hearing before a high court joint registrar.
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However, the registrar said that the plea can be listed for hearing only after the period of the 21-day nationwide lockdown gets over.
According to the petition, a medical and life insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh should be provided to each journalist, reporters and all other media persons as they have been exempted from the lockdown by the government to provide information about COVID-19 to the public.
“Thus, welfare, safety and security of media persons also assume significance in this hour of crisis when cases of COVID-19 are increasing day by day in India,” the petition said
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The petition also stated that media persons should also be provided with an insurance cover by the central government just as it has acknowledged the efforts of the health professionals in this time of crisis by coming out with an insurance scheme for them.
“Surprisingly, media persons were left out from the said benefit for reasons best known to government despite the acknowledgement of efforts of media persons by the Prime Minister of India,” it said.
“It is through the efforts of journalists, reporters and other media persons that there is no panic in India and constant updates on threat of coronavirus are being relayed and presented to public at large,” it further said.