Financial Assistance for Medical Treatment of Journalists (Tamil Nadu)

What is the medical treatment assistance for journalists in Tamil Nadu?

Financial Assistance for Medical Treatment of Journalists is a welfare benefit of the Tamil Development, Religious Endowments and Information Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, administered by the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR).

According to the Information Department, journalists are provided with medical assistance in case of serious illness during their service and while undergoing medical treatment. The assistance was increased from Rs 2,00,000 to Rs 2,50,000 with effect from 19 July 2022 on the orders of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

The money does not come from the department's annual budget line. A corpus of Rs 1,00,00,000 has been placed with the Tamil Nadu Power Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited as the Journalists Welfare Fund, and the assistance is met from the interest accumulated on that deposit. This is why the scheme helps a small number of journalists each year rather than operating as an open entitlement: in the four years covered by the department's latest policy note, Rs 25,11,000 was awarded to 13 journalists, and 15 journalists have benefited in total.

Readers should note one point of confusion. Some scheme directories describe this benefit as assistance to four journalists a year for medical treatment from the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund. The Information Department's own policy note describes the operative route as the Journalists Welfare Fund corpus described above, with a ceiling of Rs 2,50,000 per journalist. Both routes exist in Tamil Nadu for medical distress, and a journalist facing a large hospital bill may be advised by the Directorate to petition the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund in addition. State the illness and the cost, and let the Directorate route the file.

Who is eligible for journalists' medical assistance?

You can apply if:

• You are a working journalist in Tamil Nadu, in service at the time of the illness.
• You are suffering a serious illness and are undergoing or about to undergo medical treatment for it.
• You can produce a service certificate from your employer; newspaper, magazine or television channel: or an accreditation card issued by the Information Department.
• You can produce the medical records and the cost estimate or bills.

You are not eligible if:

• You have already retired from journalism. The department frames this benefit around illness during service. A retired journalist in indigent condition with 20 years of service should instead claim the journalists' pension of Rs 12,000 a month, raised from Rs 10,000 with effect from 14 June 2023.
• You work in a non-journalistic role at a media house; circulation, advertising, administration or distribution. Such staff cannot apply under this fund.
• The illness is minor or the treatment is routine, since the fund is written for serious illness.
• The claim is being made by a family member after the journalist's death. That situation is covered by the Journalists' Family Benefit Fund, which pays Rs 2,50,000 for 5 years of service rising to Rs 10,00,000 for 20 years.

There is no published income ceiling for this assistance and no published minimum period of service, unlike the pension, which requires 20 years.

What documents are required?

How to apply for medical assistance as a journalist

1. Collect the complete medical file from the treating hospital: diagnosis, treatment plan, discharge summary where treatment has already happened, and a written estimate where it has not. A file with an unnamed illness and no cost figure cannot be sanctioned.
2. Obtain a service certificate from your employer on letterhead, stating your designation and that you are currently in service as a journalist. Attach a copy of your accreditation card or press identity card if you hold one.
3. Write the application addressed to the Director of Information and Public Relations, Chennai, seeking medical assistance from the Journalists Welfare Fund, and stating the illness, the hospital, the treatment and the amount sought.
4. Submit it through the District Information and Public Relations Officer of your district, who verifies and forwards the file to the Directorate. Journalists in Chennai may file at the Directorate directly. Take a dated acknowledgement.
5. Attach Aadhaar and a bank passbook copy, because the sanctioned amount is released by transfer into your own account.
6. Follow up with the District Information and Public Relations Officer, quoting the acknowledgement, since sanctions are made case by case against the interest available in the fund.

How much is sanctioned, and when

The ceiling is Rs 2,50,000 per journalist. The sanction is discretionary and is fixed against the documented cost of treatment, so a journalist with a Rs 90,000 hospital bill will not receive Rs 2,50,000. Payment is made by transfer into the journalist's bank account after sanction.

Because the scheme is funded from interest on a Rs 1 crore corpus, the number of sanctions in a year is small. The department's own figures: Rs 25,11,000 to 13 journalists over four years — work out to an average of roughly Rs 1,93,000 per sanctioned case, close to but below the ceiling.

How to check the status of your application

There is no online tracker. Ask the District Information and Public Relations Officer where you filed whether the file has been verified and forwarded, and then write to the Directorate of Information and Public Relations, Chennai, quoting the acknowledgement. If the file has been pending for months without a written reply, a Right to Information application to the Public Information Officer of the Information Department will produce one.

Why applications get rejected or delayed

• No service certificate, or a certificate that does not show a covered journalistic role.
• Incomplete medical file, no diagnosis, no estimate, no hospital letterhead.
• Retired applicant applying under a scheme written for illness in service.
• Illness not established as serious, which is the working test the fund applies.
• Corpus interest exhausted for the year, which delays rather than rejects a file; the same application is usually taken up in the next cycle.
• Bank name mismatch with Aadhaar, which stops the transfer after sanction.

Related journalist welfare benefits in Tamil Nadu

• Journalists' pension: Rs 12,000 a month, raised from Rs 10,000 with effect from 14 June 2023, for retired journalists with 20 years of service in indigent condition. 123 journalists received it in four years, 355 in total.
• Family pension, Rs 6,000 a month, raised from Rs 5,000 from 21 June 2023, to the family of a deceased journalist who had availed the pension.
• Journalists' Family Benefit Fund: Rs 2,50,000 at 5 years of service, Rs 5,00,000 at 10, Rs 7,50,000 at 15 and Rs 10,00,000 at 20 years, for a journalist who died in harness.
• Accreditation cards and press passes, free bus passes on the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporations, concessional rent in Tamil Nadu Housing Board flats, and house sites at concessional rates in the districts.

Help and grievance route

• Directorate of Information and Public Relations, Government of Tamil Nadu, Chennai: dipr.tn.gov.in
• Information and Public Relations Department, Secretariat, Chennai 600 009
• District Information and Public Relations Officer of your district

There is no fee for applying, and no agent is authorised to charge for forwarding or expediting a medical assistance claim.