Syed Shemul Parvez :
As per the announcement of the government for the frontline fighters who risked their lives in covid-19 epidemic, have already got compensation for their duties.
The 69 victim families who died of corona have received Tk 27 crore 82 lakh 50 thousand.
Earlier, on April 7 in 2020, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced allowances for the frontline fighters.
The government announced compensation to encourage government officials-employees, doctors, nurses, health workers, police, local administration and the frontline fighters who risked their lives during the pendamic outbreak across the country. In case of corona infection, the officer-employee is asked to pay tk 5-10 lakh and TK 25-50 lakh in case of death in grade based.
On the other hand, the members of 34 families are waiting for the government orders (GOs).
According to sources of the finance ministry’s finance division, the family of Moin Uddin, the country’s first doctor to die ofcorona, was paid tk 5 million in June last year.
Although more doctors, nurses and health workers died later, the health ministry did not make any further application in about eight months.
However, at the end of last month, the Ministry of Health sent to the Finance Department a list of doctors, nurses and health workers who had died of corona were involved in medical college hospitals, upazila health complexes and sub-health centers.
The Finance Department has approved the applications of 34 families from this list. Of others, seven are doctors; the remaining 27 are nurses and health workers.
The families of these 34 people will be given Tk 13 crore 75 lakh as compensation. The issue of GO is under process in this regard.
It is learned that Tk 750 crore has been allocated in the current budget as compensation for the families of the government officials to be affected by the Corona.
But the compensation for the victims of corona affected has not started yet. However, a large number of applications have been submitted to the finance department for compensation. Finance Secretary Abdur Rauf Talukder said at a recent program that compensation to the families of government employees who died of Corona has been started according to the announcement.
The issue of compensation to the affected victims is also under process. The families of those who died of corona have to first apply to the concerned office in the name of the victim officer. They then applied to the finance department through the concerned administrative ministry for compensation.
In some places it needs to be checked and sorted out, Abdur Rauf added.
According to the source of Finance Department, the families of 59 policemen who died of corona have so far been given compensation of Tk around 22 crore 62 lakh 50 thousand in response to an application through the Home Ministry.
Following the request of various ministries, the families of five officials of the administration have been also given compensation of Tk 25 million and the families of three officials of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) have been given compensation amount to Tk 15 million.
In addition to the application of the Ministry of Health. Moin Uddin’s family has been compensated forTk 50 lakh and a district judge of the judiciary has been also compensated for Tk 50 lakh.
According to the Finance Department, the rate of collecting covid-19 positive certificates in exchange for money from several other institutions like Regent Hospital and JKG Healthcare increased due to greed for compensation.
Besides, with the increasing of number of victims of corona, the application of officials of various government departments to the finance department to get compensation with fake certificates have been increasing.
In this situation, the government is still undecided about compensating the victim’s family.
