New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has urged the Prime Minister to implement the previous order of the government to provide an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of those who died of covid-19. Channi made the request in a letter to the PM on Wednesday and assured him that his government is ready to contribute its 25 percent to the scheme.
“Wrote letter to PM @narendramodi ji & urged him to implement his previous order of disbursing ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of those who died due to Covid19. I feel, mere Rs 50, 000 compensation is insufficient. My Govt. is ready to contribute our 25% share under this scheme,” Channi tweeted with the letter he wrote to the PM.
Channi was later supported by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot. While Gehlot supported Gandhi by urging the PM to increase the compensation amount to Rs 4 lakh, Gandhi’s demand included that the accurate data on Covid-19 related deaths be released.
In March 2020, the government of India had announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh for the kin of those who lost lives in covid-19. However, the compensation was reduced to Rs 50,000 in September 2021. The government had presented an affidavit in the SC explaining how it will create insufficient funds for dealing with Covid-19.
The amount of the State Disaster Management fund is supposed to be divided between 4 PM. Channi also called this reduced amount of Rs 50,000 to be “insufficient.”