Insurance worth Rs 50 lakh for health workers is a welcome decision
Raipur, 3 May 2020.Chief Minister Mr. Bhupesh Baghel has written letter to Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and requested him to cover police personnel, employees-officials of municipal bodies and district administration under the insurance scheme of Prime Minister Poor Welfare Package, along with health workers.
Chief Minister Mr. Baghel has stated in the letter that first of all, I would like to congratulate you for implementing Epidemic Ordinance (Revised) 2020. In Chhattisgarh state, health workers, police personnel and other department officials-employees are fulfilling their duties in well-coordinated manner. No incidents of attack on health workers occurred in Chhattisgarh. Aforementioned ordinance provides a strong security cover to the corona warriors. Besides, Government of India has announced insurance scheme of Rs 50 lakh for health workers, which is a welcome decision.
Chief Minister said that besides health workers, I would like to draw your attention towards thousands of officials-employees, who have been working day and night tirelessly to make this lockdown a success. As you are aware, many employees and officials have caught COVID-19 infection while performing their duties, but surprisingly Government of India has only included health workers under the insurance scheme while other such employees-officials have not been covered. The definition of ‘health worker’ in aforementioned ordinance refers to those people who are authorized to take necessary action for prevention of the epidemic have been included under Section 1A(b)(ii). This implies that police personnel, officials-employees of municipal bodies and district administration also fit in to this definition, as they have made rigorous efforts to prevent and control COVID-19. They should be considered as health workers and they should be provided benefits of the insurance scheme. Mr. Baghel requested Government of India to cover police personnel, officials-employees of municipal bodies and district administration under the insurance scheme.
