BENGALURU: Even one-and-half years after the devastating second wave of Covid-19, some of the families of those who died are yet to receive compensation. Reason: It has not been released from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, claim officials.
Lakhs of people across the country died due to Covid-19. Children were left orphaned and many families saw multiple deaths. The goverment then announced compensation of Rs 1.5 lakh for each victim, of which the state is to pay Rs 1 lakh and the Centre, Rs 50,000. But, many families are still running from pillar to post. And even more shocking is that even after 10 months of submitting the claims, they have not even been entered into official records!
Ratnamma (70), a resident of Vijayapura village in Devanahalli taluk, Bengaluru Rural district, succumbed to Covid-19 last June. Her son Chandra Kumar applied for compensation at the tahsildhar’s office the following month. But after almost a year, he is yet to receive the compensation.
Chandra Kumar has been doing the rounds of offices, but to no avail. He says the data entry of his application was done only last month! He had also applied for the Centre’s compensation of Rs 50,000, but the amount was returned due to some technical error. Officials keep on promising that it will be set right, he says.
“My mother died last May and I submitted the application in July 25 at Vijayapura municipality. They sent it to the taluk office at Devanahalli saying that data entry was not being done there. After six months, the data entry has been done last month. The officials have made me run around for a year. Now, they say relief has not been released from the CM’s fund.
“I even spoke to Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar twice. He said he has spoken to the DC, but the latter says there are no funds. Four months ago, I even gave a representation to the CM, but yet, there was no progress. My application has been approved, but there is not funds,” Chandra Kumar said.
In the same village, there are 42 families facing a similar situation. It remains to be seen if the state government will come to the rescue of the affected families.
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The testing centres had been closed after the dip in daily new cases.