Thane: Man who lost dentist son to Covid-19 sues state for lack of promised compensation

The father of a Thane dentist who died of Covid19 has moved the Bombay High Court seeking compensation Dipak Thakur had to borrow money to meet hospital expenses of his nowdead son Dr Akshay Thakur and for the treatment of his wife and himself This comes at a time when the Centre has told the Supreme Court that states should pay Rs 50000 to the kin of those who died of CovidOn July 3 this newspaper had highlighted the need for recompensing Covid19 survivors and those whose livelihood was impacted due to the pandemic Earlier the SC had also asked the Centre to take a call on ex gratia for such peopleThakur 62 told midday ldquoI had no option but to move the Bombay High Court against the government for not keeping to their assurance of paying Rs 50 lakh to the next of kin Even after making rounds of various government offices and writing letters to the insurance claim disbursement authority in Delhi I am yet to get any compensationrdquoAbout the Centrersquos affidavit on ex gratia Thakur said ldquoIt is rubbing salt on our wounds To claim this Rs 50000 I will be made to run from one office to another This shows that the government is not concerned about our sufferingsrdquoWhat the petition saysAdvocate Nitesh Nevshe who is appearing probono for Thakur said they have made ldquoone of the largest public sector insurance companiesrdquo the Union of India through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the State of Maharashtra as parties in the petitionThane resident Dipak Thakur with his wife PratibhaldquoOur contention is that the state minister for health had publicly appealed to frontline doctors to open their clinic and do regular practising also an assurance was given that the next of kin would be paid a compensation of Rs 50 lakh in case of death during the course of duty However Dipak Thakur was deprived of this rightful claim when he approached the Insurance Claim Disbursement Authority under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan package Insurance Scheme for Health Worker Fighting Covid 19 under the instruction of Central and State Governmentrdquo said Advocate NiteshThe petition says the insurance scheme covers all public healthcare providers including community health workers who may have to directly contact and care for Covid patients and who may be at risk of being impacted Nitesh said ldquoMy client had to borrow lakhs of rupees for treating his son wife and himself for Covid Dipak had invested his retirement funds for ensuring that his son became a dentist and unfortunately the death came knocking a month before Akshay was to get marriedrdquoCentre washing its hands of Dr Santosh Kadam secretaryThane district of Indian Medical Association said ldquoThe central government is shrugging off their duty of giving compensation to Covid warriors and survivors with disabilities They are expecting the states to give compensation but in spite of many representations the state government has done nothingrdquo He said that in the early days of the pandemic the government had urged healthcare workers to serve the communityDeath certificate challengeDr Ketan Vagholkar Professor of Surgery at DY Patil Medical College welcomed the Centrersquos stand on compensation but added ldquoThe final death certificate does not mention the cause of death Therefore the next of kin will have to submit the entire hospital record of the deceased to prove the cause of death due to Covid This process could be cumbersome and needs to be clarifiedrdquoIn early days of the pandemic govt had urged doctors to come out and serve peopleDr Santosh Bansode HoD Emergency Medicine Wockhardt hospitals said ldquoMore than 1450 doctors died due to Covid19 while serving the community What happened to the promise of Rs 50 lakh compensation to families of doctors who died due to Covid Will they still get the promised sum if yes then when And if no then why no Some doctorsrsquo families were fully dependent on them those families continue to suffer in isolationrdquoHe said an ex gratia from State Disaster Management Fund SDMF is akin to shifting the responsibility on respective states ldquoWhen all were at home only Covid warriors were working on the field and many sacrificed their lives serving the nation They deserve more I feelrdquo said Dr BansodeWhat lawyers sayAdvocate Dinesh Tiwari a senior criminal lawyer said the governmentrsquos initial stance had undoubtedly indicated it was encouraging doctors to start dealing with all patients including nonCovid He said ldquoIn such a case it is highly unbecoming on the part of the government not to honour their commitments of payment of R50 lakh to all the doctors whether private or governmentrdquoAdvocate Rajeshwar Panchal said US gave more than Rs 50000 to its citizens for their daily needs during the lockdownOn the Centrersquos ex gratia suggestion he said ldquoIn such a case the victims would be reduced to a football which would be kicked by the central government as well as state governments The Supreme Court should come to the rescue of such people who have lost their earning members and were left without any support mechanismrdquoAdvocate Rajeshwar Panchal said ldquoThe expression lsquocompensationrsquo itself denotes making good someonersquos loss The amount given to citizens during lockdown for their daily needs in countries like the USA is much more than Rs 50000 Although no amount can bring back the life of Covid victims this kind of amount further adds salt to their injuriesrdquo1450No of doctors who died of Covid19 in two waves