Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, July 18: The family members of Covid victims must immediately receive compensation, the Supreme Court ordered all states and Union Territories on Monday.
If any claimant has a problem over the non-payment of compensation and/or the denial of their claim, they may contact the relevant 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 see that the compensation payable under our earlier order be made to eligible persons without wasting any time and if any claimant has any grievance they may approach the concerned grievance redressal committee,” the bench said.
The Andhra Pradesh government had been given a final chance to respond to a complaint that the state had transferred money from the SDRF to personal bank accounts. The top court had previously stopped the state government from doing so and given it notice in the case.
For petitioner Palla Srinivasa Rao, attorney Gaurav Bansal claimed that Andhra Pradesh had diverted funds from the SDRF to personal deposit accounts, which is against the terms of the Disaster Management Act.
He claimed that the state administration was using SDRF funding for objectives that were not authorised by Section 46 (2) of the Disaster Management Act of 2005.
