MADURAI: Holding that a front-line worker who died due to Covid-19 in 2020 deserves due respect, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court directed the principal secretary of revenue administration and disaster management to consider his wife's plea seeking additional compensation.
The deceased, S Nagu, was a cleanliness worker in Melur municipality. During the pandemic, he served as a front-line worker, but succumbed to the infection on October 23, 2020. Though the municipality paid Rs 50,000 as compensation to his family, his wife N Ponnupillai moved the High Court seeking an additional compensation of Rs 25 lakh citing the relief amount announced later by the state government for the front-line workers who died on Covid duty.
Justice S Srimathy, who heard her plea, noted from the records that the municipality submitted a proposal to the collector in this regard and the collector in turn returned the same to the municipality commissioner to disburse the amount. "Both the officers are passing the responsibility and the same cannot be accepted," the judge observed and directed the principal secretary to consider the petitioner's case and provide just and adequate compensation.
Since the departed soul had served as front line worker during the Covid period, due respect ought to be shown to him, she opined and advised the principal secretary not to deny the compensation to Ponnupillai.