Over 90% of the relatives of COVID-19 victims, who had sought the ₹50,000 ex-gratia, were paid the compensation amount in the State, an independent evaluation has revealed.
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The analysis was carried out by the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KELSA) with the help of its district units across the State. Of the total 62,221 COVID deaths that were reported in the State till March 27, compensation was provided in 57,288 cases, which accounted for 92.07% of the applicants.
The maximum number of applications received and compensation disbursed were in Thiruvananthapuram where 8,119 deaths were reported. Compensation was provided in as many as 7,368 applications in the State capital, the data revealed.
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The least number of deaths and disbursement of ex-gratia was reported from Wayanad where 802 were declared dead due to COVID-19 and compensation was given in 701 cases. The applications seeking compensation are pending in as many as 3,248 cases cases. The scrutiny revealed that 659 applications were rejected and 624 others were ineligible for the ex-gratia.
It was on an order from the Supreme Court that the authority carried out the scrutiny. The apex court had asked the member secretaries of State authorities to act as an ombudsman and a facilitator for the disbursal of the ex-gratia.
The para legal volunteers of the District Legal Services Authorities (DLSAs) took the trouble of calling up most of the applicants individually to verify whether the ex-gratia was provided to them, said K.T. Nizar Ahammed, member secretary of the authority.
In case of the applicants whose contact numbers were unavailable, the volunteers personally visited them at their houses and verified the veracity of the payment. In a few cases, the volunteers helped the applicants file their claims. Around 200 volunteers were involved in the verification process, said Mr. Ahamed.
The scrutiny revealed some inaccuracies in the data due to the duplication of applications, which was reported by some of the DLSAs. The KELSA has asked the State nodal officer for the disbursement of ex-gratia payments to COVID-19 pandemic to provide information on the specific cases in which the compensation amount was not be sanctioned and disbursed due to technical and legal issues. The information had been sought to initiate rectification measures through the DLSAs concerned, the evaluation report noted.