Children orphaned due to post COVID complication eligible for Shishu Sewa Scheme: Assam CM

By Devabrata Dutta

GUWAHATI: On completion of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi's seven years in the office of Prime Minister, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has announced that the state to start a Chief Minister’s Shishu Seva Scheme to help the children rendered orphan or lost their sole earning family member due to COVID-19, yesterday in a press conference in here.

In the past few weeks, the COVID fatality rate of the state has increased dramatically. Though the positive rate is reducing but the fatality rate is somewhat higher and does not seem to be coming down.

Seeing the high fatality rate InsideNE asked CM Sarma whether the post COVID deaths are being counted under COVID fatality as well, Sarma replied, “No. Once a patient tested negative for COVID their deaths will not be counted as COVID-19 fatality.”

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The recently launched Chief Minister’s Shishu Sewa Scheme is meant for those children who have rendered orphans or lost their sole earning family members due to COVID-19. Hence, InsideNE asked whether the children of those patients who have died due to post-COVID circumstances will be counted as beneficiaries under the scheme or not.

“Yes we will consider the children of those patients who have died due to any COVID-related reasons within three to four months of their recovery,” asserted Sarma.

Under the Chief Minister’s Shishu Sewa Scheme, such children will receive Rupees 3,500 each month, and a Central Government scheme that provides Rupees 2,000 to such children will also be implemented wherever applicable.

They will continue to receive the amount until they finish their education and become employed, Biswa Sarma added.

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