The government of the Union informed the Supreme Court that the national insurance policy or scheme for Covid-19 deaths is not in place and that the risk insurance cover pandemic in the country has not been discussed.
The Center reaffirmed, with its written submission before the apex court, that the Finance Commission recommended the inclusion of the pandemic as a financial relief disaster on Saturday in response to a Public-Interest Case by advocate Gaurav Bansal for payment of the ex-gratia sum to be paid of € 4 lakh for every Covid-19 death in October 2020.
The presentation was filed by the Center in justification of the affidavit by the Union Government that the ex gratia of â lâ al â lékâ â lèkhâ is not payable to the families of those who have died of â â covidâ 19, because it is not tax affordable.
On 21 June the bench of the judges Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah from the Centre sought to find out if the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), headed by the Prime Minister, had examined the question of ex-gram before deciding whether the ex-gratia payments could be subject to uniform guidelines.
In its submission, the government failed to respond to the national authorities’ deliberate ruling against the establishment of an ex-gratia payment scheme for the families of people killed of Covid-19.
But it contained only 12 identified and reported disasters – cyclones, drought, earthqakes, fires, floods, tsunamis, hailstorms, slide, avalanche, cloudburst, pests, frost and colde. It also maintained that the payment for for ex-gratia was limited to 12 disasters.
“However, Covid-19 has not been recommended by the XV Finance Commission for financing of relief measures from SDRMF/ NDRMF (state and national disaster relief management funds), which includes ex-gratia payment,” said the submission. The Centre said that ad hoc ex-gratia payments being made by state governments were from chief ministers’ and state relief funds, and not from the state disaster funds.
It added that the Union government devised its strategy to rationally and judiciously use resources of the country to deal with Covid-19 “rather than formulating the response in the straitjacket formula of minimum standards of relief, as contemplated under the NDMA, 2005”.
“The issue is not of fiscal affordability, but rather of the most rational, judicious and optimum usage of fiscal and all other resources of the nation,” said the submission, even as it did not specify whether the finance commission’s recommendations to grant no ex-gratia payments for Covid-19 deaths were placed before NDMA for consideration.
It said that Covid-19 was notified as a disaster in March 2020 “for the purpose of limited assistance towards containment measures” and for “one-time temporary arrangement” but the aspect of ex-gratia was kept confined only to 12 identified disasters.
The Government of the Union has indicated that the disaster-related insurance response scheme also fails to cover deaths from the Covid 19 on the recommendation of the financial commission for the national insurance scheme.
“Nowadays there is no guidance/policy/scheme for the Covid-19 disaster related deaths related to a national insurance mechanism,’ the submission said.
The Commission noted that in 2020-20, talks were held between NDMA and various other Centre’s functionaries and states on the coverage of natural disaster risk insurance in Indien, and in April, the final report of the working party was also presented, but “the insurance coverage being deliberated does not cover risk insurance from pandemics or epidemics like the Covid-19”.
