Centre opposes pleas in SC for ex-gratia to families of Covid-19 victims

The Centre has told the Supreme Court that though there was no issue of fiscal affordability with it but exgratia compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the families of those who have died of Covid19 cannot be paid keeping in mind the rational judicious and optimum usage of resources of the nationThe Centres additional affidavit has been filed in pursuance of the direction of the apex court which on June 21 had reserved its verdict on two PILs seeking exgratia compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the dependents of those who died of Covid19 and easing the procedures for issuance of death certificates to these victims specifying the pandemic as the reason of demiseTerming Covid19 as once in a lifetime pandemic inflicted on the entire world the Centre in the 39page written submission said various steps to strategise the nations response to the pandemic have been taken and not just the funds of National Disaster Response Force NDRF and State Disaster Response Fund SDRF but even the funds of Consolidated Fund of India are being utilised according to advice of expertsIt is submitted that as specifically pleaded before this Honble Court the issue is not of fiscal affordability but rather of the most rational judicious and optimum usage of fiscal and all other resources of the nation the Centre saidIt said the guidelines meant for 2015 to 2020 recommended expenditure for providing financial relief against 12 specific identified disasters on the national level that is cyclone drought earthquake fire flood tsunami hailstorm landslide avalanche cloudburst pestattack frost and cold wave and the Covid19 is not includedAdditionally the respective state government had been given the flexibility to use up to 10 percent of annual allocation under SDRF for providing relief to the victims of natural disasters so notified in the local context the affidavit statedIt is submitted that information has been received from all the States and UTs in this respect However as per information received it is clarified that no StateUT has provided any exgratia to Covid19 victims from SDRF the Centre saidIt further said that in accordance with the recommendations of 15th Finance Commission and the experts the Union of India devised the strategy to deal with the extremely contagious volatile and ever changing impact of the mutations of the virus Covid19 in the best possible manner utilising all the financial human and infrastructural resources of the nation rationally and judiciouslyThe affidavit states that the central government has already declared Covid19 as a disaster under the Disaster Management ActHowever on the issue of exgratia assistance on account of loss of life the guidelines provide that the norms provided by government of India Ministry of Home Affairs for assistance from SDRF should be the Minimum Standards of Relief it saidReferring to the recommendations of 15th Finance Commission it said that while considering the disasters of public health such as pandemics the commission had observed that it feels that financing of preventive and relief measures for such disasters should be left out of the SDRF and NDRFThe central government said that currently there is no guidelinepolicy scheme in NDMA which relates to National Insurance mechanism that may be used to pay for disaster related deaths due to Covid19In this regard it is submitted that the 15th Finance Committee has proposed four Insurance interventions which need to be studied further by the NDMA and relevant ministries for their feasibility it saidWith regard to simplification of process and redressal mechanism for recording reason of death the affidavit said that the Registrar General of India will be asked to examine the matter in consultation with all the stakeholders for taking appropriate action in the matterWhile reserving the verdict it had asked the parties to file written submissions in three days and specifically directed the Centre to simplify the process of grant of death certificates to the dependents of those who have died of Covid19Earlier on June 11 the Centre had told the top court that issues raised in the pleas seeking directions for exgratia compensation of Rs 400000 to the families of those who have died of Covid19 are genuine and are under consideration of the governmentHowever later the government said that paying exgratia compensation was beyond the fiscal affordability and the finances of central and state governments as they were under severe strainThe apex court is hearing two separate pleas filed by lawyers Reepak Kansal and Gaurav Kumar Bansal seeking directions to the Centre and the states to provide Rs 4 lakh compensation to the families of coronavirus victims as provisioned under the Act and a uniform policy for issuing death certificatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom 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