The Delhi government has up to now received over 6,000 applications from families of Covid-19 victims for ₹50,000 assist, as against 25,082 recorded deaths of the infection within the city, said senior governing body.
Disbursements began on September 1, and of the 6,036 applications till Monday, 660 families have received the money. Of the remainder, 1,381 families are yet to be paid, despite their applications being approved, and therefore the remaining 3,995 are pending approval, said two senior governance who didn’t wish 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 a few recipients.
On June 23, the Delhi government promised one-time financial assistance of ₹50,000 for every Covid-19 victim’s family, and ₹2,500 monthly assistance for households that lost their sole breadwinner and for orphaned children.
The government has also separately received 4,024 applications for monthly assist, after households lost their sole breadwinner to the infection. However, payments to such families are yet to start. Senior officialdom said such a monthly system needs more coordination among departments and therefore the bureaucratic processes to line up.
It was not immediately clear what number of those applications were cleared.
A Delhi government spokesperson said, “The government, under the leadership of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, has been acting on this initiative on a war footing. Necessary directions are issued during this regard. the govt. will make sure that no family, which is eligible for financial assistance under this scheme, is missed.”
Even though the govt. has deployed teams to travel door-to-door and help people complete the method, several applicants said the exercise is overly convoluted.
“We failed to know there would be most paperwork. we’ve been told that our application is incomplete and now we are heading from one office to a different to urge things done in order that we will complete the appliance 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.
Manishankar Jha, a working person who lives in Kirti Nagar and lost his brother to Covid-19 in May, said, “Government officials have visited our residence twice and that we have managed to finish our applications together with all documents necessary. But we are still looking ahead to the cash. once I last checked, i used to be told that the applying is awaiting approval.”
To claim financial assistance under the programme, an applicant needs to submit five documents online, including death certificate, proof of death caused by Covid-19, residence proof and a document named ‘surviving member certificate’, which needs to be obtained from the revenue department office concerned.
“Currently, all 33 SDM [sub-divisional magistrate] offices within the city are addressing an oversized number of applications for surviving member certificates and also the government is trying its best to ease the method,” said the primary senior government official.
But there are some more issues which the govt. is trying to resolve, the second senior government official seen.
“Other than documents, each application must pass a minimum of another crucial test. The death certificate must specifically mention Covid-19 as a cause, as per protocols chalked out by the Union government. Every state has its format of issuing death certificates. In Delhi, the municipal corporations issue the document and in most cases the reason behind death isn’t specifically detailed.”
“If that condition isn’t met, then only deaths that have happened within one month of someone testing positive qualify for further verification rounds. the govt. is trying to tweak these requirements for people’s convenience at the earliest. Orders to expedite processing of the applications are issued twice by the financial aid minister within the last one month,” said the second official.
