New Delhi : Congress on Thursday demanded Rs 5 lakh compensation for those who died of Covid. A day after Center told Supreme Court that a compensation of Rs 50,000 would be paid by states to those who died of Covid, Congress said that amount sounded like a ‘poor joke’.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also accused government of hiding data and demanded a fresh survey of Covid deaths.
An affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court by the Center said families of those who die of Covid will be given Rs 50,000 ex gratia from the state governments, and will be channelled through the District Disaster Management Authority or the district administrations.
“Lakhs of people died during the pandemic due to government’s mismanagement. We demand that those who died, their kin should get at least Rs. 5 lakh as compensation,” Shrinate said.
“It’s not very difficult for government to pay this kind of compensation… They have earned over Rs 4 lakh Crore on fuel taxes alone,” she said.
She also questioned what is the government planning to do with the PM Cares fund.
As per government figures, around 4.45 lakh people of died of Covid in India since the pandemic broke out in January 2020.
Shrinate said the real numbers were much higher.
“Government should stop trying to hide the death figures. Fresh survey of Covid deaths should be done and the families should be compensated,” he said.
In June, the Supreme Court had ruled that families of those who died from Covid should get financial compensation. The National Disaster Management Authority was given six weeks to decide on the amount and frame the required guidelines.
Some states have already announced compensation for families who have lost members to Covid. These include Bihar, which has announced Rs 4 lakh per family, Haryana, which announced Rs. 2 lakh compensation for poor families, Delhi has announced Rs 50,000 to those families who lost sole breadwinner to Covid, and Karnataka is providing Rs 1 lakh to BPL families among others.
