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 ₹ 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 centers.

"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 ₹ 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".

This committee shall come into existence within 48 hours of the passing of the order and necessary directives will be issued by the UP home chief secretary to all district magistrates.

The court said the documents show that until 7:20 pm on April 24 he had no complications and it was after this his situation started deteriorating.

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