BSP demands quick disbursal of Covid death ex gratia

The comment of BSP chief Mayawati comes two days after the state’s revenue department released detailed guidelines regarding the ₹50,000 ex gratia to each of the kin of 22,898 Covid dead in Uttar Pradesh

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said on Monday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s decision to provide monetary compensation to the families of each person who died of Covid, was a much delayed one.

BSP chief Mayawati said the UP government’s decision to provide ex gratia to the families of each person who died of Covid, was a much delayed one. (HT File photo)

“This decision should have come much earlier,” Mayawati, a four-term UP chief minister, tweeted on Monday, two days after the state’s revenue department released detailed guidelines regarding the ₹50,000 ex gratia to each of the kin of 22,898 Covid dead in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

“This is a much-delayed decision, and this help should have been provided much earlier. Now, the monetary help should be provided at the earliest. This is what the BSP seeks,” Mayawati tweeted.

To avail ex gratia, it would be mandatory to get “death due to Covid-19” listed in the death certificate. A Covid-19 death ascertaining committee (CDAC) comprising the additional district magistrate, chief medical officer, additional chief medical officer, principal or head of the department of medicine in medical college and a subject expert would be set up at the district level. This committee would ascertain the cause of death and testify the same.

All applications received at the office of the district magistrates would have to be uploaded on the relief commissioner’s website rahat.up.nic.in after which, on completion of all the necessary formalities, the ex-gratia would be electronically transferred to the account of the kin of the Covid victim.

To avail ex gratia, an application in the prescribed format, along with a death certificate stating Covid as the cause of death, would have to be made before the district magistrates who would be required to set up a cell to receive such applications.

Government employees, who died due to Covid, while on panchayat duty and whose kin are eligible for ₹30 lakh ex gratia as well as such employees who succumbed while on Covid duty and whose kin are eligible for ₹50 lakh ex-gratia are exempted from the ₹50,000 ex gratia as per order.

The BJP government at the centre has already decided ₹50,000 ex gratia to the next of kin of those who succumbed due to Covid.