Hyderabad: Congress has demanded that the Telangana government should pay rupees 50,000 as ex gratia to the next of kin of those who died due to the COVID-19 as directed by the Supreme Court.
The Hyderabad city Congress Committee minority department Chairman Sameer Waliullah alleged that the state government is suppressing the real figures of those who died due to COVID-19 in order to avoid paying the ex gratia payment.
“The number of applications for ex gratia payment was 7 times more than what has been submitted by the state government to the Supreme Court,” Sameer said. “The state government declared a mere 3993 deaths while 28969 families applied for ex gratia. The state government is trying to suppress 24976 deaths. The Chief Minister must seek clarification from the health department regarding the actual mortality figures.”
“As per the information given to the Supreme Court, only 12148 families were paid ex gratia payment out of a total of 28,969 families,” Sameer said.
The city minority Chairman said that only rupees 84.10 crore were needed to expedite all the ex gratia applications.
He alleged that the state government had suppressed the real figures of infection and mortality in the COVID-19 bulletin.
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