Zoom News : Jul 06, 2021, 02:50 PM
New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday launched the “Mukhyamantri Covid-19 Pariwar Aarthik Sahayata Yojana”, a social security scheme for families affected by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. Kejriwal said the Mukhyamantri Covid-19 Pariwar Aarthik Sahayata Yojana was launched as many children lost their parents and families lost their sole breadwinners to Covid-19.“India has seen two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic. The first wave was in 2020 and the second was in April this year. But in Delhi, this was the fourth wave. Last year, the first wave hit Delhi in June, second in September and third in September. However, the fourth wave was extremely severe. There would be very few families which didn’t get infected during this wave,” Kejriwal said while addressing the launch event virtually.The scheme was notified by the Delhi government on June 22. Under it, an ex-gratia of ₹50,000 will be provided to families who have lost their loved ones to Covid-19. An additional pension of ₹2,500 per month if the deceased was the family’s sole breadwinner.The notification also stated that the deceased and the dependent should be from the national capital. “Death should be certified as Covid-19 death or death within one month of testing Covid positive and verified by the health department as Covid death,” it added.Kejriwal also pointed out on Tuesday that orphans, including those who lost one parent to Covid and the second parent due to any other reasons, will be given financial assistance of ₹2,500 per month till the time they attain the age of 25.Representatives will visit the homes of the affected families and help them in documentation work, he said.“I want to tell all such representatives not to conduct scrutiny of applications. If the families lack any document, we will help them obtain it. We have to make sure that we make this happen. Don’t find faults with their documents... don’t make them unhappy, encourage them,” the Delhi CM further said.