Hyderabad: The departments of Arogyasri, the Department of Civil Suppliers, the Department of Information and Public Relations have drawn up a time bound program to issue Arogyasri Health Cards to all the working and retired journalists and their families. At a meeting in the Chambers of the Minster for Arogyasri, Pithani Satyanarayana and attended by Minister for Civil Supplies,  Jupalli Krishna Rao, Principal Secretary, Health,  J Satyanarayana, Commissioner, I&PR C Parthasarathi,  Adl. Director, I&PR, Prabhakar Rao, Arogyasri Trust Chief Executive Officer,  Babu, Director, Civil Supplies Subrahmanyam, K Sreenivas Reddy, Secretary- General, Indian Journalists Union (IJU), Secretary, K Amarnath, General-Secretary of AP Union of Working Journalists Y Narender Reddy, it was decided to complete the whole exercise of issuing Arogyasri Cards to journalists by the second week of December 2009.

According to the schedule, the Information Department will enumerate the working and retired journalists who are yet to get the Arogyasri cards between 2nd and 10th November. All the eligible journalists are required to submit their details in a prescribed Performa to District Public Relations Officers (DPROs) in the district and I&PR Department in the Greater Hyderabad.

Special DPL Centers will be opened in all Revenue Divisional Head quarters from 23rd to 30th November and the data would be transferred to Arogyasri Trust and the cards would be issued by the trust by second week of December. Rs. 35/- would be charged for each card.

The journalists working for media establishments of Andhra Pradesh in the national capital of New Delhi would also be extended the facility of Arogyasri, the Minister for Arogyasri, Pithani Satyanarayana announced. He said special DPL Centre would be opened at Andhra Bhavan in Delhi to take iris photos of journalists and their families.

The Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) requested all the working and retired journalists in the state, who did not get the cards in the first batch, to avail this facility without fail and get Arogyasri Cards. The General Secretary of APUWJ, Y Narender Reddy asked all the Districts Units of the Union to co-ordinate with the DPROs and ensure that all the journalists were covered by the Arogyasri scheme.