Gujarat Accepts 10,000 New COVID-19 Deaths in Compensation Tally

The Gujarat government has officially accepted that 10,000 more deaths occurred in the state due to COVID-19 as against the earlier released figures. The latest revelation came out in the state government's "figures of compensation paid to the families who lost a loved one to the pandemic," which were submitted today in the Supreme Court.

As a result, the official countrywide fatality count has increased by 2%. The current number of Covid deaths in India, as of today, is 4.85 lakhs.

In the earlier figures released by the state government, the total number of deaths was 10,098. But, it has given COVID compensation for 19,964 deaths against 34,678 total applications received. The compensation is Rs 50,000.

The Supreme Court also asked the Gujarat government to increase its efforts "to spread the word about the scheme" to more people. The two-judge bench questioned the government's use of All-India radio and local radio stations for spreading awareness about the scheme.

"Why isn't there any advertisement in local newspapers? How will you tell the common man? They are waiting for ₹ 50,000. There should be proper advertisements in all newspapers, Doordarshan and local channels with all details," the judges said.

Earlier, in October this year, the Court had approved the payment of Rs 50,000 "to the families of people who died of Covid-19, to be paid over and above the amounts paid by the Centre and state under various schemes."

The Court also questioned the Maharashtra government for giving compensations only for 8,000 of the 87,000 applications it received and asked it to speed up the process. The government replied that "it would pay out the compensation in 50,000 applications by December 30," but the Court directed the state government to compensate the remaining applicants within a week.