Rajasthan govt asked to pay compensation to children orphaned by Covid-19 within two weeks

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Rajasthan government to pay compensation to children orphaned by Covid19 within two weeksA bench of Justices M R Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia also ordered the state government to furnish particulars to the state legal service authority with respect to rejected applications of payment of exgratia assistance within two weeksIt asked the Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority to look into these applications and take appropriate decisions within four weeks thereafterIn so far as pending applications for compensation to orphans are concerned we direct the state to make the payment to remaining applicants whose parents have died due to Covid within two weeks the bench saidThe Rajasthan government informed the top court that 191 children who became orphans due to Covid have been paid exgratia out of total number of 718Also Read SC delivers split verdict in Karnataka hijab ban caseOn the issue of suicidal deaths the counsel for the state government also apprised the bench that at district level 9077 applications were received out of which 551 are pending 8047 are sanctioned and 479 have been rejectedThe top court had earlier rapped the Rajasthan government over its unsatisfactory affidavit enumerating steps on payment of exgratia to family members of those who died of Covid19 and said it was not doing any charity The apex court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal alleging Rajasthan is not adhering to the 2021 order directing states to pay exgratia of Rs 50000 to the families of those who succumbed to the pandemic Bansal also sought directions to call for status reports from the State Legal Services Authorities with respect to enforcement of its ordersThe apex court had earlier expressed concern over fake claims being made for securing exgratia of Rs 50000 meant for the families of those who died due to Covid saying it had never visualised that the relief can be misusedIt had said on October 4 last year that no state shall deny exgratia of Rs 50000 to the next of kin of those who died after being infected with Covid solely on the grounds that the death certificate does not mention the virus as the cause of the deathThis 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