SC pulls up Gujarat, Maharashtra over Covid compensation disbursal

The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Gujarat and Maharashtra governments over the slow pace of disbursal of Rs 50,000 as ex gratia payment to the kin of Covid-19 victims as per its judgement.

A bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna said that the common man would struggle to learn about the compensation scheme, in the backdrop of lack of publicity given by state governments.

The court took exception to the Gujarat government’s failure to give adequate publicity -- through print and electronic media -- to the Covid compensation scheme.

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The Gujarat government, in its latest affidavit, said to date it has received 22,557 applications for ex gratia compensation and sanction has been issued for payment in 16,175 cases and payment made in 14,215 cases. Notably, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's website had recorded cumulative deaths of 10,098 in Gujarat.

On a query, the Gujarat government counsel said that publicity of the scheme was given through All India Radio (AIR).

To this, the bench said, “Who listens to AIR ? You must give advertisements to newspapers, especially vernacular dailies”.

The counsel assured me these steps will be taken by Tuesday.

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The bench told the counsel to use FM channels, local newspapers, and vernacular dailies to advertise the scheme regarding Covid compensation.

The court decided to hear the matter on Tuesday.

During the hearing, the Maharashtra government counsel informed the top court that it has received 87,000 applications and to date, 8000 applications have been approved and disbursal was in process.

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