NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday held a review meeting with senior government officials and directed them to expedite the process of clearing out applications to avail financial assistance scheme for families of Covid-19 victims.
Bringing some relief to families who suffered loss due to the pandemic, Kejriwal asked the officials of the departments concerned, that there is no need involved for the applicant to submit the death certificate and ‘Surviving Member Certificate’ anymore. They can just verify names from records and immediately disburse monetary compensation under the Mukhyamantri Covid-19 Parivar Aarthik Sahayata Yojana, he said.
“Laid back attitude will not be tolerated at all. This scheme aims to provide financial assistance to families as they mourn the loss of their loved ones. All these people are victims and do not deserve to be troubled because of the paperwork.”
In this regard, the chief minister brought a beneficiary to the meeting for highlighting slow disbursal of compensation under the scheme.
He also reprimanded the officials after the victim narrated his ordeals of how he had to run from pillar to post for getting his application approved despite clear instructions by the government in such cases.
"It is high time that the officials understand the criticality of the work they are doing. It is a direction that no person should have to witness a similar scenario again and the officers take cognisance of the state of affairs," he added.
Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, and Chief Secretary Vijay Dev were also present in the review meeting. According to officials, 25,709 applications have been received for the one-time ex gratia amount of Rs 50,000 under the scheme.
Delhi records 32 fresh COVID cases
Delhi recorded zero deaths due to Covid-19 on Friday and 32 fresh cases, while the positivity rate stood at 0.05 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.
Only five fatalities due to coronavirus were reported last month. The death toll stood at 25,087. Over 14.13 lakh patients have recovered from the virus.
A total of 68,308 tests -- 48,755 RT-PCR tests and 19,553 rapid antigen tests -- were conducted a day ago, the bulletin said.