CPI(M) MP John Brittas has written to Union health minister J.P. Nadda, urging a comprehensive nationwide audit of ex-gratia compensation disbursed to families of COVID-19 victims.

Citing new data from the Civil Registration System (CRS), Brittas said there is a “disturbing mismatch” between the government’s official COVID-19 death toll and the number of excess deaths reported during the pandemic.

The official toll reported by the Union government was approximately 3.3 lakh. But according to CRS data, nearly 19.7 lakh excess deaths were recorded in 2021 alone, which is almost six times higher than the official figure.

Analyses of data from 2020 and 2021 together suggest that the total number of excess deaths during this period may be closer to 20 lakh, “if not substantially more,” Brittas noted in his letter.

The letter, dated May 13, begins by referencing the Supreme Court’s October 4, 2021 order, which had directed both the Union and state governments to pay an ex-gratia compensation of Rs 50,000 to the next of kin of those who died of COVID-19.

The Court had specified that this compensation was to be made in addition to any support provided under existing central or state schemes.

Brittas called the Court’s ruling “a gesture of the nation’s solidarity” and stressed that its true intent could only be realised through meaningful implementation.

“Compensation must be extended to every legitimate and verifiable next of kin,” he wrote. “Without proactive outreach, legal assistance, or suo moto identification of victims, lakhs of deserving claimants continue to be excluded...many of them unaware or unable to navigate the bureaucratic maze.”

The MP questioned how many of the families included in the excess death count had actually received the mandated compensation.

Brittas asked: “Has there been any proactive effort to identify and assist those whose loved ones died during the pandemic but whose deaths were not officially recorded as COVID-related due to testing limitations, medical ambiguities, or bureaucratic oversight in several States?”

Brittas urged the health ministry to conduct a comprehensive nationwide audit to determine how many families have received the ex-gratia payments. Also, to establish a transparent and inclusive mechanism to identify and compensate the next of kin of those who died in the pandemic but were left out of the official death registers.

Brittas wrote, “A nation founded on the ideals of justice and equality cannot afford to forsake its citizens at their moment of greatest vulnerability. To deny rightful recognition and compensation to grieving families on account of procedural opacity or flaws in enumeration would be a grave abdication of our constitutional responsibility.”

As of now, there has been no official response from the health ministry to Brittas’s letter.