Media played big role in uniting the world: Haryana CM

Gurgaon, Jan 14: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on Thursday said the media played a big role in spreading awareness in the society and uniting the world.

The world has become a 'Global Village' due to the media because news of happenings in any part of the world is now transmitted throughout the world in just a few seconds, the chief minister said at the inauguration of a printing unit of a Hindi daily in IMT Manesar here.

He said that challenges often come in the field of journalism and at times a journalist has to put his life in danger for extracting information and news.

He said the Haryana government has set up a 'Pratrakar Kalyan Kosh' (Journalist Welfare Fund) for providing financial help to journalists in need. According to the chief minister, the print media has faced challenges from various quarters.

First, on the advent of electronic media, a question was raised about who would read newspapers but it was proved wrong and people posed faith in printed words because these can be saved and stored easily and produced as an evidence or proof anywhere.

Then came the challenge of social media like Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp and Blog but the print media still remains the choice of the readers and newspapers have important place in the lives of the people.

He said that newspapers also help in taking the welfare policies and programmes to the general masses. The chief minister took the opportunity to elaborate welfare schemes and policies of the state government.

He said that the state government has focused on e-governance so that the benefit reached directly to the beneficiary, for whom the scheme has been devised reducing human interface, which sometimes pose hindrance in delivering benefits to the beneficiaries.

He said that a biometeric attendance system has been started in the state and more than 85,000 government employees were coming to office on time.

The chief minister also spoke about compensation given to farmers for their damaged crops last year and said the central government has introduced a new crop insurance scheme which will help in compensating damage in crops due to natural calamities.

Referring to the development of Gurgaon, Manohar Lal said that every chief minister cared for Gurgaon but for different reasons.

"We will also take care of Gurgaon. It is our icon, which will be shown to attract people from within and outside the country and icon will be made worth showing," he said.

The chief minister said it was his third visit to Gurgaon in a month and that it showed the importance his dispensation gives to the city. He said he is aware of challenges in Gurgaon.

A police station solely for women has been opened in every district of the state and now the government has proposed to open such police station in every sub-division, he added.

PTI