Not ‘actual’ COVID work: Centre rejects most BMC officials' pleas

A BMC worker prepares for antigen tests of passengers arriving at Dadar station. Pic/Ashish Raje

The central government had announced a compensation of '50 lakh each to Corona warriors who died in the line of duty, however, it has rejected the majority of the BMC's applications stating that they were not involved in 'actual' COVID-19 work, civic officials said on Friday.

Civic medical workers take the body of a COVID-19 victim to the mortuary at Sion hospital in July 2020. File pic/Shadab Khan

As many as 5,500 BMC employees contracted the novel Coronavirus while working on the frontline and 197 of them lost their lives. The civic body sent applications to the Centre for compensation to 169 of them. However, the central government rejected 93 proposals as ineligible and has compensated only 17 employees' families so far. Requests for the remaining 59 deceased civic employees are under consideration.

Families of workers whose applications were rejected by the Centre are being compensated by the corporation, said officials. The BMC has so far given a compensation of '50 lakh each to the families of 54 deceased employees, and a job in the municipal corporation to the next of kin of 46 staffers, officials added. The BMC said the process to give compensation and jobs to the remaining eligible beneficiaries is underway.

A civic official, not willing to be named, said, "As many as 197 BMC employees have died during the pandemic, and thousands of others risked their lives to protect the lives of Mumbaikars. We sent the compensation applications to the central government. However, after receiving rejections, there is dissatisfaction over the eligibility criteria of the Centre." According to the labour department, 832 civic employees are undergoing treatment at present.