Delhi govt gets more than 6,000 applications for Covid ex gratia

The government, however, is yet to start disbursing the ex-gratia amount, said a senior official in the government’s social welfare department who asked not to be named, adding: “The process will begin very soon.”

The Delhi government has so far received 4,165 applications for the ₹50,000 one-time financial assistance for Covid-19 deaths recorded in the city, and 2,753 applications for ₹2,500 monthly assistance from families which lost their sole breadwinner to the disease, according to documents that HT has seen.

Delhi has so far recorded more than 25,000 deaths due to Covid-19 – more than half of which were recorded in the last and worst wave of the pandemic during April-May.

The government, however, is yet to start disbursing the ex-gratia amount, said a senior official in the government’s social welfare department who asked not to be named, adding: “The process will begin very soon.”

Delhi has so far recorded more than 25,000 deaths due to Covid-19 – more than half of which were recorded in the last and worst wave of the pandemic during April-May.

The government is conducting a separate survey for children orphaned by Covid-19 and data for that is yet to be summarised.

On June 23, the government notified a scheme of one-time financial assistance of ₹50,000 for each Covid-19 victim’s kin, and monthly assistance of ₹2,500 for families which lost their sole breadwinner and children left orphaned by Covid-19.

In July, the government formed teams to visit residences of people who died of Covid-19 and help them with the application process which, senior officials said, helped immensely in terms of the number of applications received so far .

“Government officials visited our residence recently. We were facing difficulties with the application. We have been assured that we will receive the money soon,” said Jagat Kumar, one of the applicants, whose mother Tara Devi died of Covid.