Delhi government forms GoM to look into compensation pending for COVID-affected families

New Delhi: The Delhi government has formed a Group of Ministers (GoM) to look into compensation pending for families who lost their kin to COVID, an official said on Wednesday.

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta had on Tuesday said many families who lost loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic were not provided any compensation.

"To address this, a special committee has been formed to identify such cases and provide financial support," she had said.

According to a senior official, a GoM has been constituted to look into such cases and a meeting of the committee is scheduled to take place in the first week of June.

"Even under the last government, there was a GoM that looked into such cases. When the BJP government came to power, it again constituted the GoM that will look into the cases," the official said.

The June meeting will have representatives from the revenue, health and other departments to present the cases before the committee.

The GoM will analyse the details of the cases and decide the compensation.

In March this year, Gupta in the Delhi Assembly alleged that only 97 such families had received financial aid from the previous AAP dispensation, while the administration spent Rs 17 crore on publicity.

According to official data, more than 26,700 people died in Delhi due to complications from COVID infection.

In 2021, the then-Aam Aadmi Party government launched the Mukhyamantri COVID-19 Pariwar Aarthik Sahayata Yojana to compensate the victims' kin.

Under the scheme, Rs 50,000 ex gratia was announced for every family that lost a member to COVID, and an additional Rs 2,500 per month if the deceased was the sole breadwinner.

Such families also get a one-time ex gratia assistance of Rs 50,000 from the Delhi Disaster Response Fund (DDRF), in addition to a matching from the city government.