'Don't chase death certs, paperwork, verify applicant & disburse on spot'

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday chaired a review meeting for the Mukhyamantri COVID-19 Parivar Aarthik Sahayata Yojana — his government's Covid aid scheme, and strictly rebuked officials for delaying the disbursal of funds under the scheme to applicants who have been approved.

In fact, after having heard the progress of the scheme, the CM, in a slew of directions told the concerned officials to drop the requirement of death certificates and surviving member certificates and just disburse the amounts right after verification, as long as their names are tallied with the government's list of those who died of the virus.

The CM insisted that officials should verify applications from the MHA's list or their own official records and immediately disburse money. While around 25,709 applications have been received for the one-time ex-gratia of Rs 50,000, 24,475 applications have been tallied with the MHA list, of which 1,250 opted out of the scheme and 1,425 applications rejected. Of the 9,043 applications approved, around 7,163 people have, till September 30, received the amount.

The CM said that the government's duty is to console and support grieving families and not create problems for them and that applicants should not be asked to come to offices or be made to run from pillar to post.

In fact, to drive the point home and to sensitise officials, the chief minister, in a surprise move, also brought one applicant to the meeting he was chairing and asked him to share his experience applying for the aid. Kejriwal also said that the scheme aims to provide financial assistance to families as they mourn the loss of their loved ones. All of them are victims and do not deserve to be troubled because of paperwork, he said. "There should no longer be a need for submitting death certificates and surviving member certificates for the processing of the applications," the CM directed.

"If the spouse is alive, give them the entire amount. If multiple children are surviving, members divide the amount amongst them equally. Don't pile up paperwork," he said.

The chief minister stressed that if the applicant is on the government's list, officials must go to their homes and transfer the rightful amounts then and there. He said this exercise should be considerably expedited by the end of next week.

"We must understand that we have to look after these families like our own and support them in the same manner that we would support someone mourning a loss in our families," CM Kejriwal said.

A Delhi government statement added that 6,700 applications have been received for monthly financial assistance under the scheme. Of this, 3,648 applications have been approved and 3,131 beneficiaries have started getting the benefit of monthly financial assistance. So far, over Rs 1.56 crore has been transferred to their accounts.

Around 1,130 teams with 2,019 employees have been deployed to visit the homes of the applicants. The verification of about 19 thousand applicants has been completed.

Meanwhile, Delhi recorded zero deaths due to COVID-19 on Friday and 32 fresh cases, while the positivity rate stood at 0.05 per cent. The number of active cases stands at 409. The death toll due to the Coronavirus infection stands at 25,087, according to the bulletin.