Non-Payment Of COVID Assistance: Odisha Govt Directs CDMOs To Issue Death Certificates Immediately

Bhubaneswar: The state government has directed the CDMOs of all districts to issue death certificates to the families of COVID victims immediately to complete payment of ex gratia to pending applicants by March 14.

Taking serious note of non-payment of ex gratia to more than 1,000 applicants, additional chief secretary, Health department RK Sharma has asked the chief district medical officers (CDMOs) to issue Official Documents of Death due to COID-19 (ODDC).
Though the Supreme Court had asked the states to complete disbursement of ex gratia before March 7, the process has not been completed in some districts.

Of 17,115 applications received from across the state, around 16,000 have been cleared and families of the deceased paid ex gratia of Rs 50,000 each.

Sharma has instructed district administrations to issue ODDC by coordinating with officials without any separate application and not to unnecessarily harass the relatives of people who died of COVID. He has also told the CDMOs to report COVID deaths to the Director of Health Services (DHS) the next day with full details.

According to the data in the COVID ex gratia Assistance Payment System (CAPS), the financial assistance has been paid to 1,750 families in Khurda, 1,283 in Cuttack, 1,036 in Sundargarh, 1,023 in Ganjam, 794 in Bargarh, 739 in Puri, 609 in Balasore and 540 in Angul.

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and CDMOs have also been told to verify the cases where details of addresses of the deceased are yet to be reconciled from the hospital records and rectify the error.