Cachar admin takes initiative for media recognition cards, holds DLRC meeting after many years

Feb 24: After a long hiatus, Cachar Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli held a meeting with District Level Media Recognition Committee regarding accreditation cards of media persons at the conference hall of DC office in Silchar on Wednesday. The last such meeting was held in 2018. Deputy Commissioner Cachar Keerthi Jalli who is also the chairperson of this committee presided over the meeting.

At the outset, DC Cachar initiated a discussion on the applications submitted by the local reporters for recommendation to issue govt press accreditation, recognition identity card. After a threadbare discussion, the committee unanimously observed that applicants who are the editors of newspaper cannot be recommended as reporters because DIPR Assam directly issues recognition cards for editors.

In the meeting, all the relevant documents submitted by the journalists from print and electronic media were scrutinized and checked thoroughly by the committee. It is to be mentioned that the criteria for obtaining media recognition card is that the residence of the media person should be at the headquarter of the state or of the district he/she seeks recognition.

He/she should be a stringer, part time press correspondent working with one or more newspapers or agency and in receipt of retainer fees under wage board regulation. The applicant should have spent minimum 3 years in the profession of journalism and should represent a daily with the minimum circulation of 5,000 copies as described in press accreditation rules, order by the Governor, Government of Assam ,Home( B) department, notification , dated Dispur,1st August,1989.

It’s worth mentioning that 65 media persons from different media houses of Cachar district have applied for media recognition cards, out of which 43 media persons have been shortlisted for issuance of media recognition cards depending on fulfilling the relevant criteria. Noticing that some applicants have changed their media houses, the journalists were asked to deposit their recent identity cards issued from their respective media houses along with editors recommendation and experience certificate within 7 days.

The committee also decided that after obtaining identity cards, all applications should be sent to S.P Cachar for police verification. Member Secretary and in-charge DDIPR was also asked to follow up the process. In addition to that, the committee also empowered the member secretary & DDIPR to send applications to DIPR, Assam for issuance of press recognition cards after obtaining police report.

The committee requested to DIPR, Assam to issue press recognition cards for all recommended applicants and the committee also requested DIPR Assam to extend the validity of the press recognition cards upto 31st December, 2023 as because half of the current year will be gone in the process of issuance of press identity cards.

The meeting was also attended by Editor cum proprietor, Samayik prasanga, Taimur Raja Chowdhury, secretary , Silchar Press club , Shankar Dey, Veteran journalist, Bikash Chakrabarty, Additional Superintendent of police, Border, Pradip Konwar, In-charge Deputy Director of information and public relations Barak valley zone Assam, Sajjadul Haque Chowdhury and Anath Bhandu Nandi of DY365.