Bengaluru: While hundreds of families who have lost members to Covid-19 have received compensation from the government and the state government, 874 families from all Karnataka have refused to receive assistance by saying that they do not need financial assistance.
Bengaluru, with 551, has many families like that, followed by Kopolar (55), Koppal (40) and Hassan and Dharwad with each 30.
There are 69 cases – 32 of Bengaluru – where all family members have died without leaving experts legal inheritance to claim compensation.
The government cannot track nearly 1,200 families, most of which (910) come from Bengaluru.
“This is a case where the authorities are given an inappropriate or incomplete address and the wrong telephone number,” the official said.
According to data accessed by TOI, while there are more than 38,000 Covid-19 deaths, the government has received 25,755 applications – 13,059 from the BPL and 12,696 families.
Of these, nearly 24,000 was approved to get compensation.
“Of all the applications, only around 3,000 who come voluntarily and the rest are the result of the job of district level officials.
All Deputy Commissioners have ensured their team found the family address and made it onboard.
Their efforts should be praised,” Satish Kumar, Director (retirement), say.
420 Cases of Kin Victims who live in other Statest Pension Department oversee the compensation distribution of the center and manage centralized data, while the district authority is responsible for the disbursement of state government assistance.
While the center gives Rs 50,000 per death regardless of the economic background of the victim’s family, the state has announced Rs 1 lakh per family for them below the poverty line.
Kumar said training to get a family to take advantage of compensation brought to the future families who did not want financial assistance.
“There is no one from the BPL family and they say they actually don’t need help,” another official said.
This means these families are entitled to RS 50,000 per death and their rejection to receive the help of saving center at least Rs 4.4 Crore.
Furthermore, there are 420 cases where families of people claimed by Covid in Karnataka actually lived in other states, mostly Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
“In this case, we have transferred details to the government of each country,” added the official.
In total, there are 2,545 cases – fall under these four categories – that the government will not be able to pay compensation.
And, 1,674 from these cases came from Bengaluru.