Applications for Covid-19 death compensations open till May 23

New Delhi: The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of India announced on Wednesday that those who wish to claim the Covid-19 death compensation should apply for the same by May 23, The Indian Express reported.

A notice issued by the NDMA said that all Covid-19 deaths that have occurred before March 20, 2022, are eligible to apply. The compensation will be processed and credited within 30 days of applying. Further, pandemic deaths happened after the cut-off date, claims can be made within 90 days of the deaths, it added.

Last year, the Supreme Court ordered the government to issue compensation for Covid-19 victims and directed NDMA to form modalities. After the Centre informed the court regarding fake claims and the time limit for making claims, the SC produced certain guidelines, on the basis of which NDMA issued the new notice.

The NDMA notice also said that if a claimant could not make an application in the prescribed time due to extreme hardship, they could approach the Grievance Redressal Committee and place their application through it. The committee shall consider such applications on a case to case basis, the notice said.

The notice, however, warned that it would random scrutiny would be conducted on 5 per cent of the claims at the first instance. If an application is found fake, the applicant will be charged with Section 52 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 with respective punishment.