COVID EX GRATIA: Kin of deceased in a quandary over papers needed to get aid

Hyderabad: The people who come to Mee Seva centres are struggling to submit applications seeking Covid death compensation as the authorities did not specify the required documents needed to be submitted along with the application.

The State government had recently notified that the district-level committees, under the chairmanship of District Collectors, will receive the applications from all eligible and sanction the ex gratia amount of Rs 50,000 from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) after scrutinising them in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Health. Further, the State government has made it clear that the kin should apply for the aid only at Mee Seva centres by submitting necessary documents and no other platform would be allowed to receive the applications. However, with the State government failing to notify the required documents needed to be submitted for getting the aid, many people are clueless as to what procedure should be followed while applying for the ex gratia. Further, the Mee Seva centres that have been entrusted with the job of receiving applications are not even given proper instructions to take particular documents that establish the death of anyone with Covid-19.

Speaking to The Hans India, a Mee Seva centre representative from the city said, "We had only been informed that the government is taking applications from the next of kin of the deceased with Covid for providing ex gratia. We are not given any instructions or orders in writing about the proof of document that needed to be taken from the eligible. Forget about the instruction, we were informed about this news (taking applications) through a WhatsApp status of a group that is being maintained by the officials of the concerned department. We can't even see that message now as WhatsApp status exists only for 24 hours."

It is learnt that the government had not even discussed the issue with the district level officials before passing the order to form committees. "We came to know about the orders after it got aired on news channels," said a District Medical Officer. Meanwhile, the opposition parties are blaming the State government for the improper guidelines that are creating doubts among the kin. They alleged that State government, with an intention to not to extend the ex gratia amount to the eligible people, was trying to underplay the fatality rate in the State.