Kozhikode: The Kerala Government has relaxed the procedures to claim the ex-gratia for deaths caused by COVID-19.
Hereafter, the filled-in application forms submitted by the dependents for claiming compensation can be received at the respective villages offices even if the COVID-19 death declaration certificate issued by the District Medical Officer (DMO) is not attached along with the form.
The State Government has also instructed the officials to meet the dependents of the COVID-19 fatalities in person and request them to submit the application form.
Why the relaxed condition
The Kerala Government relaxed the norms for claiming the financial assistance in view of Friday's next hearing at the Supreme Court in a case over the delay in the distribution of the financial assistance.
The Supreme Court, while hearing the case on January 19, had come down heavily on the State Government for the delay in the distribution of assistance and directed the State to distribute the assistance within a week.
The court, while asking why there are less applications in Kerala, whereas in other States the number of application forms are more than the number of COVID-19 deaths, instructed the Kerala Government that the application forms should not be rejected on technical grounds.
The Supreme Court had also made the Chief Secretaries of two other States to appear before it in person in connection with the lapses in bringing out the correct COVID-19 statistics.
It is due to these factors that the Kerala Government has now expedited steps to distribute the financial assistance to kin of the COVID-19 dead at the earliest.
Earlier requirement
At first, the COVID-19 death declaration certificate signed by the DMO was mandatory for receiving the assistance. But this certificate was denied earlier to the dependents of those who died due to COVID-19 at home and those who lost lives due to post-COVID issues. Many beneficiaries could not apply for the assistance owing to this factor.
But the State Government later ordered that instead of this certificate, the furnishing of details given by the hospitals at the time of death would be enough to grant the assistance.
Over 9.000 yet to apply
The dependents of over 9,000 people who died due to COVID-19 have not yet applied for the assistance of Rs 50,000. The State Government has given the names of the COVID-19 fatalities to the local self-governments after collecting them from the Health Department.
The local bodies, which have shared this information on their WhatsApp group, are contacting the eligible families through the ward members/councillors and asking them to submit the application forms at the earliest.
