NEW DELHI: The Delhi government Thursday informed the Delhi High Court that it is processing over 6700 applications received for release of ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 each to the families of persons who have died due to COVID-19 or related problems.
A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh was also told that the Delhi government has prepared a list of around 25,000 persons who may be entitled to receive Rs 50,000 ex-gratia on account of death within the family due to COVID-19 or COVID-19 related issues.
Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, said as on Thursday, 6719 applications have been received for release of the amount and money has already been released to 3200 people and rest of the work is in process as there are still 18,000 people who are out of the system.
He said the Delhi Chief Secretary has been taking healthy and pro-active steps in this regard and added that the ex-gratia amount is being released for COVID deaths and it also includes those persons who had recovered from COVID-19 but died within a month due to post-complications.
The court noted that Mehra would share the data with DSLSA secretary Kanwal Jeet Arora who shall render assistance to those who are left out or finding it difficult to apply for ex-gratia.
The high court is dealing with several aspects relating to COVID-19 crisis in the national capital, including grant of ex-gratia to those who lost their family members to coronavirus and rehabilitation of children who have become orphans following the death of one or both parents due to the virus.
The court listed the matter for further hearing on October 1.