The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to ask the state election commission to amend its rules so that the families of all the polling officials who died of Covid after panchayat election duty receive compensation, an official has told PTI.

Teachers’ bodies had demanded ex-gratia for the bereaved families of all these thousand-plus teachers, after the government had on Tuesday said the kin of only three polling officials would be compensated in keeping with poll panel norms.

“According to the Uttar Pradesh election commission’s guidelines, election duty refers to going from home to duty till coming back home. During this duty period, if there is any death, ex-gratia will be paid,” a statement from the state basic (primary) education department had said.

“Till today, district authorities have submitted verified data of death of three teachers.”

The official who spoke to PTI on Thursday said chief minister Yogi Adityanath had directed his officials to write to the state election commission asking it to amend its rules to allow wider compensation.

“Every death is tragic and the state government has full sympathy with each employee and his family. The state government extends compensation and job to one member of the family of its staff dying during poll duty as per the Election Commission guidelines,” PTI quoted the official as saying. “But since the guidelines pertain to the time when there was no coronavirus, a fresh sympathetic consideration is required.”

According to the state election commission guidelines, families of those who die “during duty” from accidents or violence are entitled to ex-gratia. On May 8, death from Covid was added to the list but without a clarification on the period within which such deaths should have occurred.

On Thursday, state chief secretary R.K. Tiwari wrote to all district authorities to ensure that the families of all officials who got infected with Covid during duty hours and died are provided compensation at the earliest. While his letter does not specifically mention polling officials, it’s expected to apply to them.