Families of COVID-19 victims still awaiting relief

Despite approval, requests are pending as govt. has not released funds; compensation scheme ‘under process’, says official

Hundreds of people, whose family members died due to COVID-19, are yet to be given a compensation of ₹50,000 each, despite their requests being verified and approved, multiple officials told The Hindu. They have not got the compensation as the Delhi government is yet to release funds for it, as per officials.

Also, the government is yet to start distributing a monthly assistance of ₹2,500 each to specific categories of people, who have lost their family members to COVID-19, and it is in “various stages of verification”, according to officials.

Scheme for children

The beneficiaries of both the assistance include children who have been orphaned due to COVID-19 and others.

On May 18, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had promised that every child who has lost both parents due to COVID-19 will be given ₹2,500 per month till the age of 25 and will be provided free education.

“There was a meeting of senior officials last week on the compensation of ₹50,000 and work is being done on a war footing. Since it is a new scheme, funds have to be allotted under a new head by the Finance Department. It will be done in the next couple of days,” a Delhi government official said. The official said that there is no “fund crunch” for the scheme and it is “under process”.

But some people have got the compensation as district officials have paid them from the “relief fund” that all 11 districts have been getting from the government since the outbreak of the pandemic to meet all COVID-19 related expenses.

Volunteers not paid

This fund is also used to pay expenses, including salary to civil defence volunteers (CDVs), who help the government with various COVID-19 work, including activities in containment zones.

But salaries of volunteers have not been paid for July in many districts and in some cases June also, as there is a “fund crunch” with this relief fund, several officials said. “We have paid the CDVs till June, but only some of them have been paid in July,” a district official said.

Also, many labs, which do COVID-19 tests for the government, are not paid since April. “Districts have to submit utilisation certificates for money released by the department to pay labs and it is pending in many districts. So, many labs have not been paid in the current financial year,” a health department official said.

Despite multiple attempts, a Delhi government spokesperson did not respond to queries.

After the May 18 statement, on July 6, Mr. Kejriwal announced ‘Mukhyamantri COVID-19 Pariwar Aarthik Sahayata Yojna’, under which ₹50,000 will be given as a one-time compensation to all families who lost someone to COVID-19.

Additionally, children who were orphaned because of COVID-19, will get ₹2,500 every month, till they turn 25 years old, under the scheme, he said. An mount of ₹2,500 per month is also to be paid to other categories, as per the scheme.

‘No money’

In several districts, more than 100 requests each, for the one-time payment of ₹50,000 have been approved after verification, but the beneficiaries are yet to be paid, said officials.

“We don’t have money under the relief fund to pay even salaries of CDVs, then how will we pay the compensation? Whenever we get a request from a child who has lost parents, we try to prioritise it,” a district official said.

There are 6,200 children who are left with a single parent and 292 left orphaned as on August 16 due to COVID-19, as per a status report filed by the Delhi government to the High Court.

On August 23, the High Court had said that it “would be unfair to expect children who lost their parents to be able to procure documents and avail benefits” and directed the government to fix issues in the process to get compensation.

The HC had also noted that the government should take a proactive approach rather than taking the applications in a routine way.

The High Court made the observation, after an NGO moved court that even though numerous schemes were framed after April this year, nothing much has moved on the ground.

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