On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a directive requiring all states and union territories to immediately ensure that compensation be paid to the families of COVID-19 victims.
If any claimant has a problem over the non-payment of compensation and/or the denial of their claim, they may contact the grievance redressal body, according to a bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna.
Additionally, it instructed the grievance redress body to deliberate on the claimant’s application within four weeks.
The court ordered that the money be transferred to the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) account within two days in response to the complaint that the Andhra Pradesh government diverted money from the SDRF to personal deposit accounts.
“We close the proceedings while directing all the states to ensure that the compensation due under our earlier order is made to eligible persons without wasting any time,” the bench said. “If any claimant has any grievance, they may approach the concerned grievance redressal committee.”
The Andhra Pradesh government had previously been given a “last chance” by the top court to respond to a complaint alleging the state had transferred money from the SDRF to personal bank accounts and had stopped the state from doing so.
In his response on behalf of the petitioner, Palla Srinivasa Rao, advocate Gaurav Bansal claimed that Andhra Pradesh had violated the Disaster Management Act by diverting funds from the SDRF to personal deposit accounts.
According to his allegations, the state administration was using the SDRF funds for objectives that were not authorised by Section 46 (2) of the Disaster Management Act of 2005.
