“Financial aid should reach beneficiaries as soon as possible and the process should not put an additional burden on grieving families. We will conduct on-ground surveys and there should be minimal rejection rate. Help needs to reach all grieving families,” Gautam said in the statement, issued after a review meeting.
It further said, “A total of 3,103 applications for monthly pension have been received so far by the department under the scheme of which 665 have been approved. A total of 4,881 applications for a one-time ex gratia have been received by the department, of which 686 have been approved. The minister ordered the department and the magistrates to speed up the process of disbursement of financial aid.”
Delhi has so far recorded more than 25,000 deaths due to Covid-19 – more than half of which were recorded in the second wave of the pandemic in April-May.
On June 23, the government notified a scheme of a one-time financial assistance of ₹50,000 to each family with a Covid-19 death and a monthly assistance of ₹2,500 for families that lost their sole breadwinner and children orphaned by Covid-19.
In July, the government formed teams to visit residences of people who died of Covid-19 and help them with the application process which, senior officials said, helped immensely in terms of increasing the number of applications received so far.
