Rs 1 crore each ex-gratia for families of 10 govt staff who died on Covid duty, says CM Rekha Gupta

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government will grant an ex-gratia of Rs 1 crore each to 10 families of employees who lost their lives while discharging their duty during the Covid-19 pandemic, CM Rekha Gupta said on Wednesday. The government will shortly release this assistance. According to the CM, a committee of ministers, including Ashish Sood, Pankaj Singh and Kapil Mishra, is working on it. The panel would be supported by senior officials from the Relief Branch Divisional Commissioner Neeraj Semwal and District Magistrate Amol Srivastava. This is not a one-time exercise but a continuous process. The panel is regularly reviewing such cases, and in the coming days, more such families are expected to receive the ex-gratia. During the pandemic, when the entire world had come to a standstill, these employees carried on their duties day and night, ensuring that healthcare, sanitation and essential services did not halt, the CM said. She said that the government has decided to release the pending ex-gratia payments of employees who were deployed on Covid duty during 2020-2021. Very soon, this amount will be handed over to the families as recognition of the extraordinary service of the 10 employees who put service to society above their own lives during the most difficult period of the pandemic, she added.