Yogi Adityanath holds out compensation hope for kin of UP teachers who died on 'panchayat polls duty'
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said the state election commission guidelines for compensation should change because these predate the Covid pandemic. Tthere is a need to have a relook with sympathy, he said.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday told government officials to work with the state election commission (SEC) to change the guidelines so that government staffers who died of Covid-19 after working for the recently-concluded Uttar Pradesh panchayat polls can get compensation.
“The UP chief secretary and the additional chief secretary (panchayati raj) should coordinate with the commission and request it to amend the guidelines by including death due to Covid infection in a certain time period from the date of election duty. The first meeting should be held today itself,” Yogi Adityanath said at a Covid-19 review meeting on Thursday.
Yogi Adityanath’s directive is a response to demands from teachers’ associations who have claimed that 1,621 government school staffers died due to Covid-19 between the first week of April and May 16 (two weeks after the counting of votes).
The state government’s basic education department appeared to have rejected this demand on Tuesday when it insisted that according to official records, only three government teachers succumbed to Covid-19 when they could be treated on election duty under the existing rules.
On Wednesday, the department announced that the government would give ₹30 lakh each to the next of kin of the three schoolteachers and a government job to an eligible candidate in each family. The four-phase panchayat elections were held on April 15, 19, 26 and 29. The counting of votes was taken up on May 2.
The decision was sharply criticised by teachers and opposition parties who sought a liberal interpretation of the rules since there was a gap between the time when a person contracted the infection, fell ill and died. Studies have shown that the median time between someone testing positive for Covid-19 and dying from it is around 13.8 days.
At Thursday’s review meeting, Yogi Adityanath said the state government had been acting as per the SEC guidelines so far for compensating any staff who dies on election duty, be it teachers, shiksha mitras, anudeshaks, rozgar sewaks, police personnel, or any government employee on election duty.
“But because the guidelines are old — when Covid did not exist — so there is a need to have a relook with sympathy,” he said.
A senior state government official said that any policy change would be with retrospective effect, factoring in the panchayat polls held in April.
Hindustan Times has been reporting extensively on the issue, including the need to relook and change the guidelines. In the HT reports, several experts, including former chief election commissioner of India SY Quraishi, said the state government and the state election commission (SEC) should go for a “liberal interpretation” in case of casualty of government staff deployed on election duty, especially when the country is facing the pandemic.
Dinesh Chandra Sharma, president of the Pradeshiya Prathamik Shikshak Sangh (a teachers’ association), welcomed Yogi Adityanath’s decision. “The step by the chief minister is worth welcoming and we stress that the compensation should be ₹1 crore and any policy change must be with retrospective effect,” he said. He added that the Allahabad high court had made an observation for the government to consider giving compensation of ₹1 crore.
Giving a break-up of the association’s claim on the number of deaths, Sharma said: “Out of 1,621 government school staff, 1332 were teachers, 209 shiksha mitras (para teachers), 25 anudeshaks (instructors), five block education officers, 15 clerks and 35 other employees.”
A former official with the state election commission, who asked not to be named, said, “One should consider the death of government staff on a case-by-case basis and there cannot be a generalised rule that can be applied to all cases.”
Yogi Adityanath told the Covid review meeting that the state government is committed to providing all necessary benefits, especially, in times of election duties or any other such duties. So, get into a dialogue with the SEC and make necessary recommendations.”
For his part, Sharma said: “The government should also talk to us for suggestions before formulating new guidelines. We suggest that the criteria should include getting Covid infection within 10-12 days of the duty, death within at least a month of infection. It should also include post-Covid death by factors such as ‘black fungus’.”