Madhya Pradesh announces Rs one lakh ex-gratia for kin of COVID-19 victims during second wave

BHOPAL: Every family in Madhya Pradesh, which lost its member due to COVID-19 in the pandemic’s second wave, will get Rs one Lakh as ex-gratia sum, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced on Thursday.

Holding a virtual meeting with BJP legislators during his visit to Indore, the CM announced that kin of all COVID victims in pandemic’s second wave in the state will be rendered Anugraha Rashi (ex-gratia) sum of Rs one lakh.

"We tried our best to save the loved ones of every family, but many families lost their members, despite all our efforts. Words of sympathy aren’t enough for such families, as they’ve suffered irreparable loss. So every family which lost its member due to the deadly viral infection during the pandemic’s second wave will be granted Rs one lakh ex-gratia sum," Chouhan announced.

Since March this year, when the second wave of the pandemic hit MP, the state has officially lost around 3500 lives due to the killer viral infection.

This announcement by Chouhan makes MP second only to Delhi to announce ex-gratia to families who lost their loved ones to the current wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two days back, the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had announced that every family that has had a death due to COVID-19 second wave will get Rs Rs 50,000 as ex-gratia.

On May 14, he had announced Rs 5,000 monthly sum for all COVID-19 orphaned kids, besides announcing free ration and free education and interest free loan to their kin for bringing their life back on track.

Three days later, Chouhan had announced twin schemes for families of government employees killed by COVID pandemic’s second wave. He had announced government jobs for one family member of each government employee who died due to COVID and also announced Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia sum to be payable to every such deceased government employee.

Meanwhile, the state officially reported 4952 fresh COVID cases (lowest single day spike in last 41 days), 88 deaths and 9746 recoveries during the last 24 hours. The day’s positivity rate too declined on Thursday to 6.3%, which was the lowest single day positivity rate in the last 65 days.