The four government-owned non-life insurers — The Oriental Insurance, The National Insurance Company, The New India Assurance Company, and The United India Insurance Company — will pay an ex-gratia amount of of Rs 10 lakh to the nominees of the employees who have died of COVID-19 since the outbreak, or happen to die of it in the future.
One of the four, The Oriental Insurance Company, has already communicated to its staff about the ex-gratia payment via a circular. It has also assured reimbursement of 100 per cent of the remaining medical expenses — which were not covered by the Staff Group Mediclaim policy — incurred for the treatment of the employees/spouses/children and dependent parents.
This benefit is offered over and above the prevailing ex-gratia Medical Relief Scheme for certain diseases. The benefits will be paid to those who contracted COVID-10 after the outbreak happened last year and also to those who may contract the infection in the future.
The other three insurers are expected to officially announce this ex-gratia payment soon.
About three weeks ago, the Supreme Court had directed the Union government to frame— within six weeks — uniform guidelines on ex-gratia payments to the surviving families/dependents of those who lost their lives to the disease. The Court also stated that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) failed in its duty to design a compensation scheme.
