New Delhi: The Delhi government on Wednesday said that it had received nearly 8,000 applications for monthly pension and one-time ex-gratia from people who lost their family members to Covid-19, under its compensation scheme, adding that 665 monthly pension applications (out of 3,103) and 686 one-time ex-gratia applications (out of 4,881) had been approved.
However, Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam chaired a high-level meeting with district officials and other concerned stakeholders, where he directed all to do their best to make sure these compensation amounts are disbursed at the earliest.
This meeting comes days after the Delhi government told the Delhi High Court that the process of verifying documents and getting an application from approved to disbursal was having certain issues which were causing the delay in disbursement of the compensation.
Under the scheme, residents can apply for a one-time ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 upon the death of a bread-earning family member. They will also get Rs 2,500 monthly assistance.
The monthly assistance will be extended to children who have lost both parents to the virus and compensation has been set aside for those who lost one parent as well.
At the review meeting, Gautam met with District Magistrates, SDMs and senior officials of the concerned department and asked them to ensure that the aid is disbursed as soon as possible and that no additional burden is placed on the applicants.
"People are facing issues while applying for the scheme; a major problem is the issuance of survival member certificates. These certificates are not issued on time, which is creating pendency in approving these cases," Gautam said, according to a statement from his office.
He stressed that there should be minimal rejection rates for the applications under this scheme and ordered the DMs to conduct ground surveys to identify families as well. His office added that he also discussed how in many cases; a member died because of COVID-19 but their reports came after 2-3 days. He said, "Such cases need to be identified, and a list needs to be prepared so that they also come under the ambit of the scheme."