Maharashtra Covid-19 compensation exceeds recorded toll by 26,000

Since the Supreme Court mandated payment of ₹50,000 compensation for such deaths in October last year, the number of applications for compensation in Maharashtra has increased to 241,000

Compensation for Covid-19 deaths in Maharashtra has crossed the registered death statistics of 1.4 lakh, with over 26,000 persons being found eligible beyond this mark, even as scrutiny of 241,000 compensation seekers continues.

Currently, the difference in Maharashtra between the registered Covid-19 deaths and approved applications has gone beyond 26,186

On March 3, total deaths due to Covid-19 registered in the state by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) were 143,706. However, since the Supreme Court mandated payment of ₹50,000 compensation for such deaths in October last year, the number of applications requesting compensation has increased to 241,000.

After scrutiny, the state has approved payment to 158,296 persons. Over 68,000 applications were rejected and 14,723 applications are still pending.

Upon review of the rejected applications by the grievance redressal committee (GRC) constituted by the state, 11,596 appeals were approved for payment, thus expanding the list of eligible beneficiaries to 169,892. More than 22,500 appeals are pending with GRC, which has so far dismissed review in 1,876 cases.

Currently, the difference between the registered Covid-19 deaths and approved applications has gone beyond 26,186.

These figures form part of the state’s latest affidavit in the Supreme Court, almost a month after the court had taken exception to the slow progress made by states, including Maharashtra, in reaching the Covid-19 compensation to the kin of the dead.

The figures will be examined by a bench of justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna on Monday in a public interest litigation filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal. It was in this case that the court had held on June 30 last year that persons who died due to Covid19 will be entitled to compensation.

The bench had asked states to disburse the payment not just to those whose names were officially recorded as having died due to Covid-19, but even to persons who died within 30 days of testing positive. To establish this fact, the court allowed the beneficiaries to produce RT-PCR reports or any medical document to this effect.

On February 4, when the matter was last heard, the top court expressed concern over the large number of rejections by Maharashtra, and asked the state government to appoint a nodal officer and to hand over the files of all rejected cases to the legal services authority in the state for verification.

The state’s affidavit said the nodal officer has since been appointed and the rejected cases have been displayed on the state portal with the reason for rejection. These applications with details have also been forwarded to the legal service authority, the state said in its response.

The court had come down harshly upon the state government on the last occasion for rejecting applications that were filed offline. After its direction to ensure all applications are considered and no application be rejected for technical reasons, the state issued an order on February 9, directing all offices of district disaster management authorities to ensure no offline application was rejected.

Even Gujarat showed a marked increase in the number of Covid19 deaths. As against recorded deaths of 10,089, the state received 102,230 claims, of which over 82,000 have been settled. A marginal increase in Covid-19 death claims were also noted in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Odisha, as indicated in the status report submitted to the Supreme Court by the Centre on February 3.