Pune: The Centre will verify 12,600 Covid ex-gratia applications from the state for the possibility of false claims.
The move follows the Supreme Court’s nod allowing the Centre to verify 5% of the total claims in four states, including Maharashtra, where the gap between the number of claims and recorded deaths is wide. Maharashtra had provided 5% of the total 2.52 lakh ex-gratia applications to the Centre for scrutiny last week. “The Centre will scrutinize 12,600 applications for the possibility of false claims,” a state official said.
Senior citizen Subhas Weiling, who had applied for the compensation, said though the records showed that he had received the amount, the compensation was yet to be credited in his bank account even after two months of submitting the application. “I have contacted the officer concerned who had assured me to look into the issue, but there has been no progress,” he said, while demanding a thorough check into the issue.
Many women who lost their husbands to Covid are waiting to hear from the authorities on the status of their applications. “The system of application may be easy, but there is no contact number to check for the status of the claim,” a Covid widow said.
While the state has received 2.52 lakh applications, the ICMR data shows only 1.47 lakh Covid deaths in the state.
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