Minister for Food Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs and Information, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today handed over fellowship letters to 15 working journalists during a function organized by the District Information Center Rajouri in collaboration with District Administration.The journalists including Sumit Bhargav, Arif Qureshi, Emroz Suri, Imran Khan, Shakti Paul Sharma, Tazeem Malik, Sahil Sharma, Umer Arshad, Muneer Khan, Gagan Kohli, Akhil Mahajan, Avinash Jasyal, Jamsheed Malik, Madhur Gupta and Sushil Dutta were awarded ‘Fellowship in Development Administration’ by the District Administration.Speaking on the occasion, the Minister congratulated the selected journalists and encouraged them to work dedicatedly for successful completion of the fellowship as it will go a long way in shaping their career besides knitting a close association of media persons with the development administration. He termed the fellowship as milestone for greater participation of journalists in a larger democracy.Zulfkar also appreciated the journalists of Rajouri for their unbiased and positive reporting. He called upon them to carry legitimate and well-researched news items for projecting the issues of public interest. The minister expressed satisfaction over the proper use of social media by the journalists in the district.
The District Development Commissioner Rajouri Dr Shahid Iqbal while apprising the Minister about components of the fellowship said that the selected Journalists were allotted specific sectors such as health, rural development, education, disaster management, relief & rehabilitation, tourism, public service delivery, right to information act, rural sanitation and social welfare & community development.He further informed that the fellows will do in-depth study about implementation of various schemes and programmes in the allotted sectors and submit a detailed report on impact of these schemes on the ground, public perception about government schemes & policies, structural and institutional loopholes in implementation of these schemes besides suggesting measures for improvement.“Each fellow will be given a fellowship grant of Rs 20,000 and logistics for their field visits,” said Dr Shahid adding the fellows will be submitting their final report by ending March 2017.The Minister was informed that the district administration is also coming up with press club with provision of library, reading room, conference hall, internet facilities and badminton court. The press club, a long pending demand of media persons of the district will be registered as society and it will be a one stop center for all media related activities.The Minister while lauding the district administration for its initiative such as press club and media fellowship directed to identify land for setting up of press colony in the district.Among others, SSP Yougal Manhas, ACR Abdul Qayoom Mir, CPO Abdul Hamid, DSWO Abdul Khabir, Tehsildar Salam Din, other senior officers and Journalists were present on the occasion.