In an era of e-vehicles, more and more people are increasingly accepting the need for this form of transport, not just because it is cost-effective but also for its low carbon emissions which makes it environment friendly. In a bid to boost the Government’s efforts to use e-bikes, the Department of Information and Publicity notified a scheme ‘Subsidy to purchase E-Bike for journalists’ in the year 2024. Realising its potential for helping source and report news stories, the journalist fraternity has eagerly shown a keen interest in the scheme with as many as 28 applicants getting approvals under the scheme in the very first year of the scheme.
To make the scheme even more attractive, it was amended and the subsidy provided to the beneficiary was raised to 50 % of the cost of the e-bikes with a maximum cap of Rs 75,000/-, an increase from the previous limit of Rs 50,000/-.
This year in 2025 till date, another 7 applications have already been approved to avail of the scheme.
Kiran Munankar, Information Officer, Department of Information and Publicity, says that the scheme has been envisaged in such a manner to assist journalists to practice their profession in a very convenient manner with regards to travelling. Expressing happiness on the positive response the scheme of the Department is receiving, Munankar urged the journalists to go through the terms and conditions of the scheme well, so as to apply along with proper documentation.
Beneficiaries who have availed benefit from any other such Government schemes offering subsidy on e-vehicles are however, not entitled for this scheme which is open to journalist /accredited Journalists recognised by the Department and is either a working journalist as defined in the Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1955 (45 of 1955), as amended from time to time or a journalist who has been a full-time journalist for at least 8 years whose sole livelihood is his or her journalistic activities with a newspaper or news agency or media house. The beneficiary has to not be more than 58 years.
Calling the scheme ‘excellent’, Rajtilak Naik, President of the Goa Union of Journalists (GUJ), feels that e-bike is suitable especially for city travel where there’s ample infrastructure to charge the bikes also. He said that e-bikes give better mileage and are environment friendly. Naik hopes the Department extends the scheme to include electric four wheelers too as he opines that journalists often travel in four wheelers when covering long distance assignments and four wheelers are more suitable for all weather conditions.
