Gujarat Covid ex gratia claims cross 1 lakh, 87,000 approved

The Gujarat government continues to receive more applications for compensation for Covid-19 deaths. In an affidavit submitted before the Supreme Court, the state has acknowledged the receipt of 1,02,230 claims till Thursday for compensation for their relatives' deaths due to Covid-19 against 10,579 deaths that the authorities have formally attributed to the pandemic so far.

The state government has informed the Supreme Court about 10 times more death claims it has received for Rs 50,000 ex gratia. The apex court is scheduled to hear the case on Covid death compensation issue on Friday.

In its compliance report, Gujarat has stated that it has received over one lakh death claims and out of them, it has sanctioned 87,045 claims. It has made payment to 82,605 claimants till date. The government authorities have also rejected 8,994 applications. There are more than 6,000 applications which are under scrutiny.

The state government has also informed the SC that there are 5,867 children who have become orphans in this pandemic, and it has paid compensation in 3,287 cases.

Gujarat has witnessed the highest difference between the death figures that the state government has reported, 10 times. Telangana has received nearly eight times more death claims than the reported deaths in this pandemic - 31,053 claims as against 3,993 reported deaths. Telangana has approved 22,873 claims and paid the compensation amount in 16,962 cases.

The Gujarat government was made to give wide publicity to the compensation scheme by the apex court, which first pulled it up for introducing scrutiny mechanism to process death claims.

The SC chastised the state bureaucracy for not simplifying the process even after the judges twice suggested to strictly adhere to its guidelines that the only requirement for claim eligibility is RTPCR positive test and death of the patient within 30 days.