Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner on Monday announced a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to the families and kin of civic employees who succumb to Covid-19 in the line of duty. With this initiative, BMC becomes the first municipal corporation in the country to announce such a scheme to support the families of the employees who died due to Coronavirus infection.
According to BMC officials, the scheme will be applicable for the period from March 1, 2020, to September 30, 2020. Every civic employee who has worked at the frontline during the pandemic including those who are on a permanent payroll, temporary employees, contractual employees, salaried, outsourced, those working on daily wages, ad-hoc and employed through agencies etc will be covered under this scheme.
The scheme was announced by BMC chief Iqbal Singh Chahal on Monday. The civic body has clarified that the scheme will be implemented under BMC's own funds.
The Finance Department of the State Government of Maharashtra directed all the local bodies and State Government Undertakings to implement the Sanugrah Assistance Scheme on May 29, 2020. The municipal administration has announced on Monday that this plan has been prepared and implemented in just 10 days after that.
Criteria for the eligibility for the compensation have also been fixed. "The criteria stipulate that the employees must be present on duty for a period of 14 days or more before being admitted to the hospital or before the date of death due to Covid-19. In cases where the Covid-19 has not been tested or there is a possibility of a false negative report, the committee of senior officials will take the final decision, in that case, following verification," said a senior BMC official.
According to the official, after the death of the employee, their families and kins can claim and apply for the compensation. Once the application is submitted, verification of the case will be done, following which compensation will be disbursed. The application will be verified after the claimant submits all the required documents along with the application to the concerned department. The claim will be prepared by the concerned department and submitted to the office of the Chief Staff Officer. It will be scrutinized by the Chief Personnel Officer and the matter will be then referred to the Chief Accountant (Finance) Department for authorization.
Those workers covered under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana have already been included in the insurance scheme. Therefore, this compensation scheme will not be applicable to them.
