Covid ex-gratia disbursals now up after CM Kejriwal intervenes
New Delhi: In the little over a week since Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal chaired a review meeting on the disbursals of ex-gratia to families of those lost to Covid-19, the number of one-time payouts disbursed has seen a significant rise — especially after the CM directed officers to stop chasing death certificates and surviving member paperwork.
The Delhi government, in a statement, said 89 per cent of the 14,605 verified applications had been disbursed to the concerned bank account — amounting to around 13,005 people receiving Rs 50,000 one-time ex-gratia on the death of a family member due to the pandemic.
Chief Minister Kejriwal held a review meeting on Friday to look into the Mukhyamantri COVID-19 Parivaar Arthik Sahayata Yojana and directed officials to complete the disbursal of the monthly pension of all the beneficiaries within a week.
The CM gave further instructions to the officials to ensure that all families who have not yet registered for the pension, be made to register no matter what it takes for the officials to reach out to them and the pension of all the victims' families should be started within a week. He also instructed officials to visit homes of bereaved families and transfer the financial assistance to them on the spot.
The Delhi government in a statement said that the monthly pension of 86 per cent of the applicants registered so far has been started. The meeting this Friday was attended by Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Cabinet Ministers Kailash Gahlot and Rajendra Pal Gautam along with the Chief Secretary and DMs of the Capital.
The government in the statement also said that there are 2,196 families that have voluntarily backed out of the scheme. So far, out of the number of applications registered for the monthly pension, 86 per cent of applicants have started getting pension after verification.
On October 1, the Chief Minister had expressed anguish over the pendency in the implementation of the Mukhyamantri COVID-19 Parivar Aarthik Sahayata Yojana and had directed the officers to disburse the amount to the families at the earliest.
The CM had then said that there would no longer be a need for Death Certificates and Surviving Member Certificates from families and that the officials should instead verify applications from the MHA list or official records and immediately disburse the money.
The CM had then stressed the fact that the government's duty is to console and support grieving families and not create problems for them.
Under monthly pension, Rs 2,500 pension is being given to the dependents of the deceased every month.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the virus remained unchanged on Friday at 25,088 as the Health Department reported 39 new cases with a daily positivity rate of 0.06 per cent. The number of active cases in the city now stands at 399.
