Bihar Cabinet nod to 'special family pension' for dependents of govt staff who die of COVID-19

The Bihar Cabinet on Saturday agreed to give "special family pension" to the dependents of state government staff who die of COVID-19 while on duty, according to an official release.

The dependent of a government employee, who die of COVID-19 while on duty, will be given the benefit of compassionate ground, for getting a job, besides other existing benefits, Cabinet Secretariat Department's Special Secretary Mithilesh Kumar Singh said in the release.

If the dependent doesn't want to avail the benefit of compassionate ground, then the family will be given full salary of the staff, who died due to COVID-19, as "special family pension" till the date retirement, he said.

This decision will be effective from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021.

The decision assumes significance in view of a number of government staff succumbing to COVID-19 infection while discharging their duty.

The cabinet meeting, which was chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, took 29 decisions including on 11 legislative matters which are likely to be tabled in the four-day Monsoon session of the Bihar Legislative Assembly beginning August 3.

Bihar's COVID-19 tally reached 36,314 on Saturday with over 2,500 more people testing positive for the disease in a day, while 11 new fatalities took the death toll to 232, the state health department said.