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Coronavirus outbreak: Ludhiana hospital disburses advance Covid-19 claims worth ₹48 lakh
The move has been taken by Christian Medical College and Hospital, the only exempted provident fund trust in Ludhiana district
Amid the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), the only exempted provident fund (PF) trust in the district, has disbursed Rs 48.63 lakh advance among its employees as Covid-19 advance withdrawal claim.
The hospital’s move comes after the Union labour ministry’s March 30 notification that had relaxed the rules of PF withdrawal to help people in financial distress amid the pandemic.
Exempted PF establishments are the ones that have exemptions of filing employees’ provident fund (EPF) returns with the Employees Provident Fund and Organisation (EPFO) and manage their workers’ PF accounts as well as funds.
‘28 ADVANCE WITHDRAWAL CLAIM REQUESTS SETTLED’
CMCH finance manager Amit Aggarwal said that so far, the establishment has settled all the 28 advance withdrawal claim requests they had received from their employees. “Since the government’s notification, we have received around 28 claim requests from our staff, including nurses, lab technicians and doctors. We are settling all the withdrawal claims of Covid-19 within 24 hours of requests,” he said.
On Monday, the EPFO head office had shared that till date, the private PF trusts across the country have disbursed a total of Rs 481.63 crore to their employees as the Covid-19 advance claim.
“It is heartening to see that CMCH, the only exempted establishment covered under the jurisdiction of Ludhiana regional office, rose to the occasion and extended benefits to its employees in a timely manner,” said EPFO regional commissioner Dheeraj Gupta. Since the imposition of the lockdown by the government, the EPFO has also settled a total of 6,934 claims, including 2,613 Covid-19 advance claims, and disbursed Rs 17.71 crore in the district till date, he said.
“I appeal to all the establishments employing 100 or less people with 90% of them having wages less than Rs 15,000 to take benefit of the financial relief under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana under which both the employees and the employers’ shares will be paid by the government for the next three months,” Gupta said.
