Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday announced that the women, who have lost their husbands due to Covid19, would get an amount of Rs 2.5 lakh as one-time grant.

In a tweet on Sunday evening, chief minister Sarma said: “Many precious lives were lost due to #COVID19, leaving a number of families in distress.”

“In our sincere effort to provide some relief to women whose husbands died of the disease, Rs 2.5 lakh will be given to such eligible widows as one time grant,” he added.

In order to help the women of the state, who have become widows after losing their husbands due to Covid19 infection, the Assam government has launched a scheme – Chief Minister’s Covid19 Widows Support Scheme.

According to the scheme, the beneficiary should be a permanent resident of Assam and the beneficiary’s husband should have died with a Covid19 positive status at the time of death.

The death due to Covid19 should be certified by the State-level COVID Death Audit Board.

The beneficiary must belong to a low-income family having an annual income up to Rs. 5 lakh.

The beneficiaries of ‘Orunudoi’ and ‘Widow Pension’ scheme are also eligible to get the benefit of this scheme.

However, widows of government servants will not be covered under this scheme. They will get the family pension as per usual terms.

The process of implementation of the scheme:

The deputy commissioner of the respective district shall compile the list of eligible beneficiaries from the NHM database of COVID victims.

The list will be verified keeping in mind the eligibility criteria.

On verification, the money will be disbursed to the beneficiaries account.

Any person, who meets the eligibility criteria and is not a part of the final list, can submit representation with supporting documents to the deputy commissioner concerned.

What are the documents required?

Certification by the deputy commissioner that the beneficiary fulfils each of the eligibility criteria.

Bank details like account number, bank name and branch, IFSC codes, etc. are other required documents.