The family was assured that the grant will be received in a day. Also, her pending application for the refund of her son Anmol’s graduation fee was also approved. Rajni was told that the education of her daughter Aastha, who is in standard VI, would also be made free. The ‘missing’ file deposited by a mother for getting free education for her children after her husband’s death last year, was located; documents for Covid-19 compensation that were languishing for months because they were “incomplete” were all completed; pending application for the refund of amount paid for a child’s course was approved — all this was done in a day after Chandigarh Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh ordered immediate redressal of all the issues faced by families who lost their family members to COVID.
It was not just the Deputy Commissioner’s office that swung into action, the social welfare department, the education department, the health department, all suddenly woke up to the woes of the families who had lost their breadwinners to Covid-19 and displayed remarkable ‘efficiency’ to address the issues they were facing in a day.
The district child protection unit’s office in Maloya on Thursday called various affected families about the benefits their children are entitled to under the Parvarish scheme. The education department was directed to write to private schools to make education for children who lost their father or mother to COVID, free.
Rajni, whose case was reported by Express on Tuesday, was called by officials who helped her apply for the compensation of Rs 50,000 that she hadn’t been able to get for a year. The family was assured that the grant will be received in a day. Also, her pending application for the refund of her son Anmol’s graduation fee was also approved. Rajni was told that the education of her daughter Aastha, who is in standard VI, would also be made free.
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Health Secretary Yashpal Garg spoke personally with mother of three, Anju whose husband died of Covid-19, during the second wave last year. He assured her of all possible help and called for all the required documents. Anju’s husband Shashi Kumar had died last year and the family was forced to move to Anju’s native place Haridwar with her widow mother.
The District Child Protection unit counselled over 100 people whose family members died of Covid-19. They were also informed that the administration will be happy to help if they have any financial liability such as a bank/gold loan or any legal issue such as property dispute or issues related to education.
They were also promised a grant of Rs 5000 per month for every child until the age of 18.
COVID DEATH FIGURES REVISED to 1,076
In another development, an investigation done by the Health Department in December last year to reconcile the figures of the Covid victims with the record at the cremation grounds resulted in the revision of the total number of dead from 820 to 1076. Their families will be entitled to Covid benefits.
During the exercise, it was observed that there was a mismatch of 359 deaths. On further investigation from the records of the hospitals and details or documents collected from families, it was observed that 256 deaths were recorded as Covid deaths at the cremation ground.
The Health Secretary has ordered that the number of deaths in Chandigarh due to Covid be treated as 1076 instead of 820 and the details of 256 deaths due to COVID be shared with State disaster management authority to consider total 1076 instead of 820 for release of compensation of Rs 50,000 and other benefits entitled to the families.
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