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Kerala government plans to come out with list of COVID-19 deaths

This is in the wake of Centre asking states to compensate kin of victims

HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/INDIA-MAHARASHTRA (File) Representational image | Reuters

Kerala government is planning to release the complete list of COVID-19 deaths as the Centre has put the responsibility of paying the compensation to victims of the pandemic on states.

The Centre told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that state governments will pay an ex-gratia amount of Rs 50,000 to the kin of COVID-19 victims. This amount is supposed to be provided from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) and distributed by the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) or the district administrations, as per the affidavit submitted by the Centre.

“There needs to be more clarity on how the fund will be provided and distributed. But we are fine-tuning the list in the backdrop of the new decision,'' an official with the State Death Audit Committee told THE WEEK.

“It is not clear yet whether the Centre too will take a share of the compensation,'' said the official.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had, on Wednesday, said the Central government too should provide a share in the compensation. “Our government will not shirk away from the responsibility of giving the compensation. But the Union government cannot say it has no role to play in paying the ex-gratia amount,'' he had said.

The Congress government in Rajasthan too had made a similar demand. It had said COVID-19 is a pandemic which has hit the whole country and that it should be covered under the National Disaster Relief Fund.

As per the Kerala government, the total number of COVID-19 deaths is 24,039. However, there have been allegations that 13,000 deaths due to COVID-19 have been left out.

“We will look into all these while making the final list,'' said the official when asked about this discrepancy.

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