Coming to the rescue of a widow whose spouse, a schoolteacher who died of Covid-19 pandemic while on coronavirus containment duty, the Orissa High Court has directed the state government to declare the deceased as a covid warrior and provide financial assistance to the widow in accordance with notification issued six years back
Justice A.C.Behera in a ruling directed the Opposite Parties including Collector and District Magistrate, Puri and Block Development Officer, Kakatpur block are to declare to the deceased husband of the petitioner as a Covid-19 Warrior and to provide financial assistance to the petitioner as the spouse of the deceased within one month.
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The husband of the petitioner — Surendar Kumar Kandi — was serving as an Assistant Teacher in Osalanga Primary School under Kakatpur Block of the Puri district. Kandi was assigned with Covid-19 duty in Covid-19 Treatment Center at DRC Dighal High School, Nimapara for the period from 9 July 2020 to 29 September 2020. On the basis of the order, he was engaged in Covid-19 duties in the Covid-19 Treatment Center. During the course of Covid-19 duty, he contracted the deadly virus and died of Covid-19 on 26 October, 2020.
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The Government of Odisha, Health and Family Welfare Department made a declaration issuing guidelines for providing financial assistance to spouse/next of Kin of persons, who succumb to COVID-19, while in Active Line of Duty clarifying that, “if he/she is tested/detected COVID-19 positive within 30 days from his/her last day of active COVID-19 related duty(the 30 days count is from the last day of COVID-19 duty to the date of swab collection)
The Collector, however, rejected the Covid warrior’s widow claim stating that “there is gap of 63 days between the last day of COVID19 duty, i.e., date 29.07.2020 to the date of swab collection, i.e., date 1.10.2020.”
However, the Court overruled the Collector’s act of rejecting the claim on the ground of discrepancies in reports filed by his subordinates.
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