Yogi Adityanath govt pays ex-gratia to kin of over 2,000 staff who succumbed to COVID-19 during panchayat polls

New Delhi: The Yogi Adityanath government has disbursed over Rs 600 crore as compensation to the families of nearly 2,000 employees who died of Covid-19 while on the Uttar Pradesh panchayat polls duty between April and May when the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic hit the state, said a media report.

Citing the state government order dated August 26 transferring Rs 606 crore to the State Election Commission and ordering District Magistrates to transfer Rs 30 lakh each to the families of over 2000 state government employees who had succumbed to the Covid-19 during the poll duty.

“The District Magistrates (DMs) would transfer the money within a week through RTGS in bank accounts of the next-of-kin of the deceased employees,” the News18 report cited the UP govt order signed by Additional Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh. 

The order was sent to the state election commission and all DMs. It listed the names of all 2128 state government employees who had died after being on panchayat polls duty — 2097 of them due to Covid-19 and 31 employees due to non-Covid reasons. 

Initially, the state govt said that a few employees had died due to Covid-19 during the poll duty, citing the State Election Commission report that death is counted only if it occurred during the time an employee left his house for duty and returned back.

According to the order, the state government has expanded that criterion on “compassionate grounds” to consider 2128 deaths of employees for compensation. 

It said, “In the benefit of the deceased employees and on compassionate grounds due to situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the criteria has been changed to consider deaths within 30 days of the training, polling or counting process of the Panchayat polls.”

It further said that Rs 606 Crore is being released to the State Election Commission and another Rs 27.75 crore is being arranged by the government as Rs 633.75 crore is needed to compensate families of 2128 deceased employees with Rs 30 lakh each. Hence, families of 96 employees will have to wait a bit more for getting the compensation.

The state government decided to release the compensation after a prominent teachers union claimed deaths in April and May of over 2000 teachers and those from various other government departments who were on poll duty and contracted Covid and died after some days. 

During Panchayat polls, the teachers` federation had alleged that from training to polling, the State Election Commission failed to follow the requisite Covid-19 norms anywhere, which has made the situation more frightening.

Notably, the Panchayat polls were held in the middle of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The Allahabad High Court did not entertain a PIL in April which sought the postponement of the Panchayat polls.

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