The Union government told the Supreme Court that it cannot pay a sum of Rs four lakh as ex-gratia to families of all those who died due to Covid-19 as it would exhaust the disaster relief funds and also impact the Centre and States preparation to address future waves of the pandemic.
It also submitted that the finances of States and Centre were already under severe strain, due to the reduction in tax revenues and increase in health expenses on account of the pandemic.
In an affidavit, the Ministry of Home Affairs submitted that ex-gratia relief under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, to 12 notified disasters is provided through the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), and the annual allocation for the year 2021-22 for SDRF, for all states combined is Rs 22,184 crores.
“Therefore, if ex-gratia of Rs four lakhs is given for every person, who loses life due to Covid-19, the entire amount of SDRF may possibly be spent on this item alone, and indeed the total expenditure may go up further," it said.
It further contended that utilisation of scarce resources for giving ex-gratia, may have unfortunate consequences of affecting the pandemic response and health expenditure in other aspects and hence cause more damage than good.
“It is an unfortunate but important fact that the resources of the Governments have limits and any additional burden through ex-gratia will reduce the funds available for other health and welfare schemes," it said.
Unlike floods, earthquake, cyclone, etc, during the ongoing pandemic, thousands of crores of rupees have been spent by Centre and states on prevention, testing, treatment, quarantine, hospitalisation, medicines and vaccination etc.
“It is not known that how much more is required. Thus, Central and State Governments are taking all possible measures to prevent and prepare for future waves of COVID-19," the affidavit said.
The affidavit was filed in response to PILs by advocates Gaurav Kumar Bansal and Reepak Kansal, who contended ex-gratia relief should be paid to kin of Covid-19 deceased as the Centre has declared it as a national disaster.
The Centre maintained that due to its scale and impact, it would not be appropriate to apply the scheme of assistance, eligible for natural disasters, to the epidemic.
The MHA said under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana Package announced in March, 2020, the government has provided insurance cover of Rs 50 lakhs per person.
The MHA contended this insurance cover has been made available from the inception of the pandemic and it provides a sum more than 12 times larger than the sum being sought in the writ petition.
Instead of Rs four lakh ex-gratia, the Centre said that a broader approach, which involved health interventions, social protection, and economic recovery for the affected communities, would be a more prudent, responsible, and sustainable approach.
It also pointed out there was no precedent of giving ex-gratia for an ongoing disease or for any disaster event of long duration, extending for several months or years.