Categorical Information Service
NEW DELHI: The Centre has determined to cancel the present insurance coverage scheme of Rs 50 lakh for these healthcare employees who die within the line of Covid-19 obligation, it has emerged.
Officers within the Union Well being Ministry stated the federal government is in talks with a brand new insurance coverage firm.
“The claims underneath the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana shall be settled by the insurance coverage firm until the twenty fourth of April 2021,” stated the Union well being ministry in a tweet.
“Thereafter, a brand new dispensation shall be cowl the Corona warriors, for which ministry is in talks with a brand new insurance coverage firm (New India Assurance),” it added.
A round despatched out by the Union Well being Ministry to states final month stated that the scheme concluded on March 24 whereas solely 287 claims had been processed till then.
Anticipating the deaths of healthcare employees, the Union authorities final 12 months had introduced the scheme as a part of its Rs 1.7 lakh crore Covid-19 reduction bundle.
“Roughly 22 lakh well being employees could be offered insurance coverage cowl to combat this pandemic,” the official assertion by the federal government had stated. “Safai karamcharis, ward-boys, nurses, ASHA employees, paramedics, technicians, docs and specialists and different well being employees could be lined.”
The scheme had additionally lined employees within the personal sector.
There is no such thing as a official information on the variety of frontline employees who’ve died of Covid-19 in India however in response to Indian Medical Affiliation, the biggest physique of docs in India, a minimum of 739 MBBS docs, together with 3 docs within the second and ongoing wave of the pandemic, have succumbed to the infectious illness.
In a letter to written to states, Union well being secretary Rajesh Bhushan nonetheless wrote on March 24 this 12 months that whereas “the scheme has acted as a really efficient security internet and has been capable of present reduction to the healthcare employees who’ve misplaced their lives on account of Covid19,” it needed to be concluded on the identical day.
His letter stated that every one the claims until the midnight of March 24 could be eligible for protection underneath the scheme and one month’s window shall be offered for the ultimate submission of all of the eligible claims to the insurance coverage firm together with the requisite supporting paperwork.
The scheme, introduced by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on March 26, 2020 was first carried out for 90 days and was later prolonged for a 12 months.
Bhushan didn’t reply to a question by this newspaper on the content material of the letter despatched to states.