Gujarat puts Covid toll at 10,099, but clears 16,175 ex gratia claims

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government has informed the Supreme Court that it has received 22,557 applications for ex gratia from the kin of those who died of Covid-19 in the state, of which it has sanctioned payments in 16,175 cases.

The official Covid toll in Gujarat, as declared by the government, stands at 10,099 till Monday and the report submitted to the SC indicates that 6,076 “extra or additional claims” have been added, making Gujarat the latest state to add a significant number to its death tally. Most states are reporting compensation payments to the court in keeping with the SC directive which widened eligibility to even include cases of suicide among Covid sufferers. Death due to any cause while a person is suffering from Covid or within one month of contracting the disease has to be counted as a “Covid death”.

In an affidavit filed in the apex court on December 9, in response to a litigation filed by Gaurav Bansal on disbursal of Rs 50,000 compensation in Covid death cases, Gujarat’s relief commissioner said, “It is submitted that till date, 22,557 applications have been received for payment of ex gratia, out of which sanction order has been passed for 16,175 cases. It is further submitted that out of the 16,175 cases which have been sanctioned, DBT (direct benefit transfer) has been done for 14,215 cases.”

In the past, former chief minister Vijay Rupani had rejected claims of under-reporting of Covid deaths. “The method of recording Covid deaths has been stipulated by ICMR and all states, including Gujarat, are following it. Other states are also not recording the deaths of comorbid patients as Covid fatalities,” Rupani had said.

The issue of Covid compensation has been contentious in the state as experts believe that the actual number of people who succumbed to the viral attack could be much higher, which is expected to result in higher claims for ex gratia of Rs 50,000. With the Gujarat government submitting that it is widely giving publicity to the ex-gratia disbursal scheme as per SC directives, the number of claims are likely to increase further.

The Gujarat government said that it has started broadcasting an advertisement in this regard on the All India Radio and would soon air this information on FM radios and publish advertisements in local dailies as well, said advocate Pranjal Kishore. He is appearing for applicant Amit Panchal, who questioned the Gujarat government’s notification about Covid-19 death ex gratia, claiming that it was not in accordance with the SC guidelines.

On the SC’s directions, the state government has launched a portal on which relatives of Covid-19 victims can file online applications. “The link to the online portal has been provided on multiple government websites of all district collectorates, as well as VCEs (Village Computer Entrepreneurs) of e-gram centres at the village level,” the affidavit reads.

The state government also added that on December 4, it had informed the court that it had received 12,718 applications and out of them, 7,145 claims were sanctioned and payments were made in 6,515 cases.

The SC had asked all state governments to pay ex gratia in cases in which RT-PCR test was found positive and death of the patient had occurred within 30 days of the testing. As the Gujarat government’s notification introduced more criteria to the SC guidelines, the SC came down heavily on the state government and the notification had to be modified and simplified on three occasions.

The SC has posted further hearings on this issue on Wednesday.