Delhi govt provides Rs 50,000 to 21,235 people under Covid scheme

NEW DELHI: Delhi government has provided Rs 50,000 ex-gratia to 21,235 people who lost a family member to Covid and in 7,955 cases, monthly financial assistance of Rs 2,500 is being provided under the government’s Mukhyamantri Covid-19 Aarthik Sahayata Yojana.
Social welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said as a responsible and caring administration, the Kejriwal government is rapidly working upon dispensing Covid-19 compensation.“21,235 people have received Rs 50,000 ex-gratia till date and 1,500 applicants will receive the one time aid in a few days. Nearly 2,000 have refused to take the ex-gratia. The government has approved 9,484 applications for the monthly pension of Rs 2,500 and 7,955 are already receiving the money every month,” Gautam stated in a press conference, adding that the Delhi government received a total of 25,100 applications for ex-gratia.
Gautam stated that the government is making every effort to ensure the documentation process simple for applicants and teams concerned in the SDM offices have been directed to carry out door to door verification.
A major section of the refusals came from families that were financially well-off and did not seem to require the aid. Apart from this, most of the applications are in the finalisation stages barring a few that have met some technical problems that are being worked upon. About 1,500 applicants will soon receive the aid, the minister stated.
The Rs 2,500 monthly aid program under the scheme is given to orphaned dependent children and widows of those who died due to Covid while one-time ex-gratia for those who lost a family member to Covid.
Under the monthly pension scheme, 1,120 applications are under the process of verification and the eligible applicants will start receiving the money after the verification is done. “Aid has been extended to 1,529 persons on the portals and will be remitted to their bank accounts in three to four days. We are clearing all applications as soon as we can. There are some cases where queries have been raised and will be cleared once the queries are resolved,” Gautam said.
“The compensation disbursement process has been streamlined and simplified. We have made every effort to make the documentation burden as light as possible for applicants. SDM offices and their teams have been directed to carry out door to door verification as well," Gautam said.
After the devastating second wave rampaged through the capital, Delhi government in July launched the financial assistance scheme aimed at helping families recover from the setback they suffered due to Covid deaths in the family. Many children lost their parents to Covid. The government explained that the scheme has been planned to support and stand with people in grief.
Initially the progress of the scheme was slow. On October 1 CM Arvind Kejriwal had expressed strong displeasure over the pendency of applications in the implementation of the scheme and directed officials concerned to disburse the amount families of Covid-19 victims have claimed at the earliest. Within a month, things significantly improved.