Gorakhpur: The Uttar Pradesh government has recommended that the State Election Commission (SEC) pay ex-gratia to the family members of 2,020 government employees who died of COVID-19 during or after they were posted for compulsory duty in UP’s panchayat polls, which were held in April.
In a letter that additional chief secretary Manoj Kumar Singh sent to the SEC’s secretary on July 13, a total of 3,092 applications were received, out of which the kin of 2,020 poll workers were found to be eligible for compensation. Some applications have been forwarded to the Advisory Board on COVID-19.
Singh wrote that in view of COVD-19, the poll duty period was revised, under which ex-gratia would now be granted to families of those who died within 30 days of the date of election duty. He urged the authorities to take necessary action regarding payment of the ex-gratia.
The list of victims forwarded by the additional chief secretary includes 75 government employees from Azamgarh, 72 from Gorakhpur, 59 from Prayagraj, 51 from Deoria, 43 each from Moradabad, Sitapur, Jaunpur and Bulandshahr, 47 each from Raebareli, Ayodhya and Bareilly, 41 from Bijnor and 46 from Lakhimpur Kheri.
As per the revised rules, the eligible families of the deceased government staff who were on poll duty and died of COVID or post-COVID complications will receive an ex-gratia of Rs 30 lakh.
The president of the Uttar Pradesh Primary Teachers Association (UPPTA), Dinesh Chandra Sharma, said that ex-gratia has been approved for families of more than 1,000 staff members of the Basic Education Department. The association had earlier handed over a list of 1,621 employees, who it said had died of COVID-19 during or after poll duty, to the government. “We will continue our struggle to claim the ex-gratia amount for all the teachers and employees who died of COVID-19 during the panchayat elections,” he said.
The vice president of the Uttar Pradesh Primary Shiksha Mitra Association (UPPSMA) Tribhuvan Singh claims that 234 shiksha mitras who contracted COVID-19 while on poll duty later succumbed to the infection. The government has approved the compensation for families of only 145 shiksha mitras, he said. “We are studying the reasons for the rejection of applications. While families of some of the deceased shiksha mitras did not apply, some of them could not furnish the required documents. If all ex-gratia is not provided to families of all those who died, we will take the matter to court to get justice,” says Singh.
Apart from the 1,621 primary teachers, shiksha mitras, instructors and other staff who the UPPTA said had died of COVID-19 during the panchayat elections, the UP Secondary Teachers Association had claimed that 425 teaching and non-teaching staff members of secondary schools, who were posted for poll duty in the state, had succumbed to the viral disease.
After initially claiming that more than 1,000 of its employees who were on election duty had died of COVID-19, the State Employees’ Joint Council later released the names of 518.
On June 2, Director General, Department of School Education, sent a report to the additional chief secretary (basic education), according to which a total of 1,474 employees of the department had succumbed to COVID-19. It includes one Group A officer, six Block Education Officers, 1,248 Group C personnel, comprising primary school teachers and clerks, and 47 Group D employees. Apart from this, 172 shiksha mitras and instructors have also died of Covid.
Under the revised mandate, the state government modified the clause which mentions the period of poll duty, and extended ex-gratia compensation to employees who died of COVID-19 within a month of the said duty.
Earlier, the poll duty period under the panchayat election was limited to the duration of training, voting, counting and other poll-related activities undertaken by the poll worker. Hence, several employees who succumbed to the infection after the poll duty period were not considered eligible for compensation. The UP government decided to revise this policy after coming under intense criticism for saying only three employees died due to COVID-19 and that their families had been comepnsated.
