Guwahati, June 28: Press Club of Assam (PCA) demands a modern multi-media centre in Guwahati for the benefit of working journalists across Northeast India and urged State chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to take personal interest in realising the project nearby the International Convention Center or Guwahati Club Rotary (opposite to Kamrup Academy School).
PCA, in a media statement, reveals that the eco-friendly centre will facilitate a meeting place for scribes,
initiate programs for their capacity building and arrange programs for the welfare of media families.
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“Regular programs like press meets/briefings, interactive sessions with distinguished personalities, screenings of national and international classic movies and documentary, video conferences with
foreign journalist-writer-scholars, training and workshops for young scribes, regular health camps etc. can be organized at the centre.
Provisions may be taken to accommodate space for various city-based media organisations and also an affordable lodge for the visiting journalists inside the complex,” said PCA president Kailash Sarma, working president Nava Thakuria and general secretary Hiren Ch Kalita.
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Various non-media organizations and individuals will be able to take advantage of the centre organizing their programs and expressing their views freely on different matters of public interest, said the PCA
statement adding that the centre should be powered by rooftop solar energy so that it depends little on regular electricity during the daytime. Moreover, a scientific arrangement for garbage management and
recycling of water (used in the centre) along with a rainwater harvesting system should be installed in it.
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The statement expresses an apprehension that once the construction process for the proposed RBI-Silpukhuri- Chandmari-Bamunimaidan flyover begins, useful space in the city press club will be limited
drastically. Moreover, the government has sanctioned a plot of land for the said club (which is currently functioning from Ambari archaeological site) in Beltola-Basistha area, where the foundation stone for a building was laid recently by State IPR minister Piyush Hazarika, the demand for a media centre in a central location emerges as more justified, it concluded.
(Nava Thakuria is a senior Indian journalist who contributes to various media outlets including print and digital platforms of India and across the world)
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