Doda, June 17: Press Information Bureau, Jammu, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India on Saturday organized a Rural Media Workshop (Vartalap) in district Doda. The Rural Media Workshops are being organized by PIB in collaboration to build a direct interface between the Government and the journalists working at district and sub-district levels across the Jammu division.
Deputy Commissioner, Vishesh Paul Mahajan, who was the chief guest on the occasion said, “Media being the fourth pillar of democracy must be balanced, unbiased and should be at the forefront to highlight developments across various sectors going on in the district. A journalist must maintain checks and balances and should do responsible reporting at all costs.”
Joint Director PIB, CBC J&K, Ladakh Region, Ghulam Abbas in his address said, “Path-breaking reforms and the phenomenal infrastructural development have taken place in the nine years of the government under PM Narendra Modi. Journalism plays a vibrant role in the development of the district as people get to know about various schemes, policies and programs of the government only through media.”
Senior Superintendent of Police, Abdul Qayoom said the biggest role of the media is to bring transparency and accountability in the system as the media is the torch bearer of society. “The good and bad of the society can be brought to the public only with the help of media,” he said.
Additional Superintendent of Police, Doda, Shakeel-ul-Rehman informed about the police reforms brought about in the last nine years by the government and said, “Be it the introduction of modern weaponry, armoured vehicles, CCTV surveillance in the detection of crimes and the traffic management system, every other reform has been brought in to make police modern by providing technology and other things.”
District Information Officer, Doda, Mohamad Ashraf threw light on the development across various sectors brought about in Doda over the last nine years. Idrees Lone, General Manager, DIC Doda, spoke about various reforms brought about in the industrial sector across India and in district Doda.
Anil Gupta, Chief Agriculture Officer, Doda, spoke on the agriculture-related initiatives taken by the government in district Doda over the last nine years and Tawseef, TSWO spoke about the Direct Bank Transfer and its implications on the social welfare schemes of the government.
The technical sessions were followed by interactive question-answer sessions in which journalists talked to the experts and cleared their doubts regarding various schemes and programmes. The journalists also thanked PIB for organising the workshop and expressed hope that more such workshops will be conducted in the future.