Covid ex-gratia: Surviving member cert no longer needed for spouses who lost their partner in pandemic
New Delhi: The Delhi government on Wednesday announced that a Surviving Member Certificate (SMC) will no longer be required to avail the benefits of its Covid financial assistance scheme, under which a one-time payment of Rs 50,000 has been promised to the kin of those who lost their lives to the virus during the pandemic, in addition to other benefits.
The Revenue Department of the Delhi government clarified that the requirement of an SMC had been dropped for cases where one of the spouses is alive. The requirement of SMC will remain in force for the grant of ex-gratia for other applicants, it added.
Under the scheme, known as the 'Mukhyamantri COVID-19 Parivar Arthik Sahayata Yojna', the State provides cash transfers to families who had lost their bread earners due to COVID-19.
In cases where the deceased was a single parent, the surviving children are entitled to the ex-gratia equally distributed among all children but for that, the name of the applicant should be reflected in SMC.
Similarly, if the deceased is unmarried or is a minor son or daughter, the father
or mother of the deceased will get relief under the scheme subject to their name appearing in SMC.
The State's Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot while making the announcement said that the government will stand with the people in their time of grief and will help the families who have lost their loved ones in the pandemic in every way possible.
The Minister chaired a meeting with department officials to review the "Mukhyamantri Covid-19 Parivar Arthik Sahayata Yojna" which was attended by Divisional Commissioner, District Magistrate (HQ) and all the District Magistrates (DMs).
"As CM Arvind Kejriwal has always assured the people of Delhi, the government will stand with the people in their time of grief. It is our duty and responsibility to help the families who have lost their loved ones in this pandemic in every way possible," Gahlot added.
According to the Delhi government's data, more than 10,000 applications for various financial assistance
schemes have been received till September 15, of which
a little over 6,000 claims have been approved. In fact, the Delhi government has said
that over 5,100 claims of Rs 50,000 one-time ex-gratia had already been paid to the beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, Delhi reported 30 fresh COVID-19 cases and zero fatality on Wednesday, while the positivity rate stood at 0.04 per cent, according to the city government's health bulletin.
The national Capital has recorded only three fatalities due to the infection in September so far.
The cumulative case tally of Delhi stands at 14,38,586, while over 14.13 lakh people have either been discharged or have recovered or migrated out, the bulletin said. Nineteen patients have been discharged in the last 24 hours.
The death toll remains at 25,085 and the case fatality rate is 1.74 per cent, it stated.
The bulletin said that 70,651 tests were conducted on the previous day, of which 49,728 were RT-PCR tests, while the rest rapid antigen tests.
