Covid-19 compensation: SC pulls up Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan on 'abysmal' disbursal rate

The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Kerala Maharashtra and Rajasthan governments for abysmal disbursal rate of compensation of Rs 50000 exgratia to next of kin of Covid victimsA bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna noted that Maharashtra has recorded more than 141 lakh Covid deaths but the state government has received merely 12000 applications in connection with Covid compensationIt pulled up the Maharashtra government counsel saying that the number of deaths will be more and asked what is the issue with the government in connection with low disbursal of Covid claimsTell your government whatever we say to the state government should not fall on deaf ears it told counselThe bench noted that out of 141 lakh deaths the state government has only approved approximately 4000 claims for Covid compensation and reiterated that the government should address the issues with an abysmally low rate of Covid compensationIt directed the Maharashtra government to complete the compensation payment within one weekThe bench also expressed dissatisfaction with the Rajasthan governments failure to submit data on various counts which also included no information on number of persons to whom compensation paid so far in connection with Covid exgratiaAlso read Supreme Court directive on framing guidelines for compensation to Covid19 victims under consultation GovtNo particulars given with respect to how many claims receivedhow come the state still doesnt even have the figures of the number of persons who have applied for compensation or any other data it notedJustice Shah said the Rajasthan government is suppressing something and wondered how come it did not have figures on the number of persons who have applied for compensation The bench said how could the state government which has so far recorded close to 9000 Covid deaths disburse compensation without data on applications receivedThe bench also pointed out that the state government has also not provided any information on number of vernacular papers in which it advertised in connection with Covid compensation Also there was no information on advertisements in English dailies radio advertisements and advertisements on social mediaThe bench also pulled up the Kerala government which has recorded 40855 Covid deaths so far Pointing out that the state has recorded over 40000 deaths and claims received so far are over 10000 the bench said Sorry state of affairsExpressing concern at the low number of payments made to people who lost their loved ones to the disease the top court said the state government has only paid Covid compensation to 528 and approved over 1900 applications for Covid claim It said as a welfare state it is the duty of the state to make payment of compensation to the next of kin of those who succumbed to the pandemicIt asked the Kerala government to complete the Covid compensation payment within one weekThe top court made these observations on a plea filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal The Supreme Court in its October 4 judgment had approved Rs 50000 exgratia for the kin of Covid victims as recommended by the National Disaster Management Authority Previously the top court had issued notice to several states over the abysmally low disbursal rate of Covid compensationThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever