At Least 1 Crore Compensation For Poll Officers Who Died Of Covid During UP Panchayat Polls: Allahabad High Court

The court directed the principal of Medical College, Meerut to come with exact reports of those 20 deaths -- from Covid testing and SpO2 status -- at the time of admission which was recorded by the hospital.

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday observed that the amount of compensation for polling officers, who died due to COVID-19 during Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh, is very less and the compensation must at least be to the tune of Rs one crore. A two-judge bench comprising Justice Siddharth Verma and Justice Ajit Kumar made this observation while hearing a Public Interest Litigation on the spread of the pandemic in the state and conditions of quarantine centres. "To compensate the loss of life of the family's bread earner and that too because of a deliberate act on part of the State and the State Election Commission to force them to perform duties in absence of RT-PCR support, the compensation must be at least to the tune of Rs one crore. We hope that the State Election Commission and the government will rethink the amount of compensation and come back to us on the next date fixed," it observed. On the death of 20 patients in a hospital in Meerut, the court observed that even if it is a case of suspected Covid death "we are of the view that all such cases of death should be taken as Covid deaths and no hospital can be permitted to hold these cases as non-Covid cases so as to reduce the number of Covid deaths in that hospital".