6k+ apply for govt’s Covid aid scheme, over 2k cleared so far
The Delhi government has so far received over 6,000 applications from families of Covid-19 victims for financial aid of ₹50,000 each, as against 25,082 recorded deaths of the infection in the city, said senior government officials.
Disbursements began on September 1, and of the 6,036 applications till Monday, 660 families have received the money.
Of the rest, 1,381 applications have been approved for payment, and the remaining 3,995 are pending approval, said two senior state government officials who asked not to be named.
A government official said the approved claims are being processed on a “first-in-first-out basis”, which is causing a delay for some recipients.
On June 23, the Delhi government promised one-time financial assistance of ₹50,000 for
NEW DELHI:
each Covid-19 victim’s family, and ₹2,500 monthly assistance for households that lost their sole breadwinner, and for orphaned children.
The state government has also separately received 4,024 applications for monthly financial aid from households that lost their sole breadwinner to the infection. Payments to such families are yet to begin, and state government officials said that the a monthly system needs more coordination among departments to be rolled out.
It was not immediately clear how many of these applications have been cleared.
A Delhi government spokesperson said, “The government, under the leadership of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, has been working on this initiative on a war footing. Necessary directions have been issued in this regard. The government will ensure that no family, which is eligible for financial assistance under this scheme, is left out.”
Though the government has deployed teams to go door-todoor and help people complete the process, some applicants described the exercise as convoluted.
“We did not know there would be so much paperwork. We have been told that our application is incomplete and now we are heading from one office to another to get things done so that we can complete the application and claim the money. We need it,” said Renu Tarafdar, a domestic worker based in southeast Delhi’s Dakshinpuri whose husband died of Covid-19 in April this year.
To claim financial assistance under the programme, an applicant has to submit five documents online, including death certificate, proof of death caused by Covid-19, residence proof and a “surviving member certificate”, which is obtained from the revenue department office.
“Currently, all 33 SDM (subdivisional magistrate) offices in the city are dealing with a large number of applications for surviving member certificates and the government is trying its best to ease the process,” said the first senior government official.
There are some more issues the state is trying to resolve.
“The death certificate must specifically mention Covid-19 as a cause, as per protocols chalked out by the Centre. Every state has its format of issuing death certificates. In Delhi, municipal corporations issue the document and in most cases, the cause of death is not specifically listed.
“If that condition is not met, then only deaths that have happened within one month of a person testing positive qualify for further verification rounds. The government is trying to tweak these requirements for people’s convenience at the earliest,” said the second government official.