‘NO INSURANCE COVER FOR DOCS WHO WERE NOT ON COVID DUTY’

MUMBAI: The Central government on Friday informed the Bombay high court (HC) that family members of private medical practitioners and other healthcare providers, not requisitioned for Covid-19 duties, were not entitled to the insurance cover of ₹50 lakh available to Covid warriors under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP).

Responding to a petition filed by the widow of a private practitioner from Navi Mumbai, advocate Sandesh Patil, who represented the Central government, submitted that petitioner Kiran Surgade was not entitled to benefits under the package, as her husband, Dr Bhaskar Surgade, was infected with Covid-19 during the course of his private practice. Patil said it was not possible to consider cases of such doctors who succumbed to Covid-19 during their private practice as such an attempt will open floodgates of claims.

Surgade, a resident of Kopar Khairane in Navi Mumbai, had moved HC for direction to the New India Assurance Company Ltd, to immediately disburse her claim of ₹50 lakh under PMGKP. Her petition, filed through advocate Ajit Karwande, stated that her husband, an Ayurveda practitioner, had received a notice from the BMC on March 31, 2020, asking him to keep his dispensary open. She claimed that her husband treated patients, including those infected with the virus. Eventually, he acquired the infection and died on June 10, 2020. Claiming that her husband died a Covid warrior, on August 2, she submitted a claim under PMGKP for compensation with the New Indian Assurance Company. She moved HC after the company rejected her claim.

Assistant government pleader Kavita Solunke had, through an affidavit of the director of health services, said that doctors above 55 years and those with co-morbidities were exempted from the purview of the notices. Since Dr Surgade was 56 years old, he was exempted. The division bench of justice SJ Kathawalla and justice Riyaz Chagla posted the petition for hearing on January 13.