Over 6k apply for Delhi govt’s one-time aid scheme for families of Covid victims

Disbursements began on September 1, and of the 6,036 applications till Monday, 660 families have received the money

The Delhi government has so far received over 6,000 applications from families of Covid-19 victims for ₹50,000 financial aid, as against 25,082 recorded deaths of the infection in the city, said senior government officials.

So far, 25,082 people in Delhi have died of Covid-19. (Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

Disbursements began on September 1, and of the 6,036 applications till Monday, 660 families have received the money. Of the rest, 1,381 families are yet to be paid, despite their applications being approved, and the remaining 3,995 are pending approval, said two senior government officials who did not wish to be named.

A government official said the approved claims are being processed on a ‘first-in-first-out basis’, which is causing a delay for some recipients.

On June 23, the Delhi government promised one-time financial assistance of ₹50,000 for each Covid-19 victim’s family, and ₹2,500 monthly assistance for households that lost their sole breadwinner and for orphaned children.

The government has also separately received 4,024 applications for monthly financial aid, after households lost their sole breadwinner to the viral infection. However, payments to such families are yet to begin. Senior government officials said such a monthly system needs more coordination among departments and the bureaucratic processes to set up..

It was not immediately clear how many of these applications were cleared.

A Delhi government spokesperson said, “The government, under the leadership of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, has been working on this initiative on a war footing. Necessary directions have been issued in this regard. The government will ensure that no family, which is eligible for financial assistance under this scheme, is left out.”

Even though the government has deployed teams to go door-to-door and help people complete the process, several applicants said the exercise is overly convoluted.

“We did not know there would be so much paperwork. We have been told that our application is incomplete and now we are heading from one office to another to get things done so that we can complete the application and claim the money. We need it,” said Renu Tarafdar, a domestic worker based in southeast Delhi’s Dakshinpuri whose husband died of Covid-19 in April this year.

Manishankar Jha, a factory worker who lives in Kirti Nagar and lost his brother to Covid-19 in May, said, “Government officials have visited our residence twice and we have managed to complete our applications along with all documents necessary. But we are still waiting for the money. When I last checked, I was told that the application is awaiting approval.”

To claim financial assistance under the programme, an applicant has to submit five documents online, including death certificate, proof of death caused by Covid-19, residence proof and a document named ‘surviving member certificate’, which has to be obtained from the revenue department office concerned.

“Currently, all 33 SDM [sub-divisional magistrate] offices in the city are dealing with a large number of applications for surviving member certificates and the government is trying its best to ease the process,” said the first senior government official.

But there are some more issues which the government is trying to resolve, the second senior government official pointed out.

“Other than documents, each application has to pass at least one more crucial test. The death certificate must specifically mention Covid-19 as a cause, as per protocols chalked out by the Union government. Every state has its format of issuing death certificates. In Delhi, the municipal corporations issue the document and in most cases the cause of death is not specifically detailed.”

“If that condition is not met, then only deaths that have happened within one month of a person testing positive qualify for further verification rounds. The government is trying to tweak these requirements for people’s convenience at the earliest. Orders to expedite processing of the applications have been issued twice by the social welfare minister in the last one month,” said the second official.