Tripura announces health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh for journalists in the state

The Tripura government has announced that media personnel in the state will be provided with health insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh a year, PTI reported. Chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb made the announcement during a conference in Agartala by the Forum for Development and Protection of Media Community.

PTI said that Deb's speech included suggestions to "create livelihood opportunities" for journalists. It quoted him as saying: "I want to suggest to the leaders of FDPMC that it should prepare a list of journalists who belong to the low- income group. The state government will leave no stone unturned to work for the betterment of their livelihood opportunities."

Northeast Now reported that Deb's announcement came a day after he apologised to the media fraternity for something he'd said in September. On September 11, Deb had said that he would not "forgive" the media and that a section of the media was trying to "mislead" people with fake news on Covid. On Sunday, however, he said he was "sorry" if his words "hurt anyone".