KOLKATA: The West Bengal government has spent Rs 74 crore from its State Disaster Response Fund to settle around 15,000 claims of COVID-19 deaths out of the over 18,500 applications it has received so far, a minister said here on Tuesday. At least 80 per cent of the claims have been cleared, and more will be done soon, he stated.
"In accordance with the Supreme Court guidelines, we are releasing the compensation amount as soon as we get clearance certificates from doctors," state disaster management minister Javed Ahmed Khan said.
According to the minister, the department has received funds of Rs 100 crore from the state disaster management authority to pay compensation for such claims.
"So far, we have spent Rs 74.4 crore to settle around 15,000 claims and it seems we may need more," the minister said. Over 4,500 claims were made from North 24 Parganas district, around 1,300 came from South 24 Parganas district and over 100 from Malda district, an official of the department said.
The official also said that the number of such applications filed in Kolkata were comparatively less, given the fact that the fatality rate in the city was high.
West Bengal, till January 20, reported 20,230 COVID-19 deaths, 5,453 of which were in the metropolis.
A Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) official said, "We have received around 2,200 applications, and compensation has been paid for more than 1,500," he said.
On January 19, the Supreme Court directed state governments to intensify their efforts in reaching out to families of COVID-19 victims to pay them ex-gratia.