Centre Folded Hands In Supreme Court
- 21-Jun-2021
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Disagreed To Pay Rs 4 Lakh Compensation To Covid Victims
The MHA argued that the finances of states and Centre are under severe strain, due to the reduction in tax revenues and increase in health expenses on account of the pandemic. MHA stressed that utilisation of scarce resources for giving ex-gratia, may have unfortunate consequences of affecting the pandemic response and health expenditure in other aspects and hence cause more damage than good.
In an affidavit, the Ministry of Home Affairs submitted that ex-gratia relief under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, to 12 notified disasters is provided through the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), and the annual allocation for the year 2021-22 for SDRF, for all states combined is Rs 22,184 crore. "Therefore, if ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh is given for every person, who lost life due to COVID-19, the entire amount of SDRF may possibly be spent on this alone, and indeed the total expenditure may go up further.
The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that the finances of states and Centre are under severe strain, due to the reduction in tax revenues and increase in health expenses on account of the coronavirus pandemic. And Rs 4 lakh compensation can't be paid to all those who died due to Covid-19 as it would exhaust the disaster relief funds, and also impact the Centre and states' preparation to address future waves of COVID-19.
