Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday announced an ex-gratia of ₹50,000 to families in the national capital that lost a member to Covid-19 disease, reported ANI.
CM Kejriwal also announced a monthly pension of ₹2,500, in addition to the ex-gratia, for families where its sole breadwinner succumbed to the deadly viral disease.
“If the husband dies, the pension will be given to the wife, if the wife dies it will be given to the husband. If an unmarried person dies, the pension will be given to her or his parents,” Kejriwal was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.In a further relief for children who lost their parents in the Covid-19 disease spread, Kejriwal said, “Children whose both parents die either due to Covid-19 or with one parent already dead and the one succumbing to Covid-19 now will be given ₹2,500 monthly pension till they attain the age of 25 years.”
“The children who have lost their parents to Covid-19 will be provided free education by the Delhi government,” Kejriwal further said.
Explaining the move to financially aid the bereaved families, Kejriwal said that in the last 4-5 days the Delhi government ministers and officers assessed ways to save money being spent by the authorities and help the citizens in the city-state who are reeling under the crisis.
Assisting families with ration cards, Kejriwal announced free ration for the month of May up to 10kg — by both the Delhi government and Centre.
“There are 72 lakh ration card holders in Delhi and they are given 5 kg ration by the government every month. This month, the ration will be given free of cost. Besides this, an additional 5 kg free ration is being given by the Centre, so they’re being given 10 kg free ration this month,” Kejriwal said.
The announcement from CM Kejriwal comes on the day the national capital recorded 4,482 cases of coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative case tally to 14,02,873, and 265 related deaths, a health bulletin released by the government on Tuesday showed.
The positivity rate has significantly dropped to 6.89% from 8.42% on Monday, when the city had logged 4,524 cases, the lowest since April 5.
