Shashi Tharoor, a Congress leader, slammed the government on Friday for the ‘discrepancies’ in official figures of coronavirus-related deaths and the number of people claiming ex-gratia payments. Tharoor questioned the accuracy of the data, citing the example of Gujarat, which had 10,094 Covid deaths but granted ex-gratia payments of 68,370.
‘In today’s LS Question Hour, ICMR research on Covid was discussed. No one raised the discrepancy between official figures of Covid deaths and numbers claiming ex-gratia payments, eg Gujarat says it had 10,094 deaths but has approved 68,370 claims. Which is true?’ Tharoor tweeted.
On Friday, MoS health and welfare minister Dr Bharati Pawar spoke in the Lok Sabha about the ICMR research. ‘ICMR has published over 250 researches. The international journals published ICMR studies.’ she said.
In a 2021 order, the Supreme Court stated that once Covid-19 was declared a ‘disaster’ under the DMA, it was mandatory to consider a scheme for ex gratia compensation for those who died as a result of the infection. It went on to say that Section 12 of the DMA imposes a legal duty on the Union government to recommend guidelines for minimum relief standards.
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