Soldiers dying on COVID-19 duty to be declared martyrs, says Govt

Guwahati: The Indian Government has announced the soldiers who die while on Covid-19 duty will be declared martyrs, reports said. This came about after the government and Union home ministry has approved a proposal in principle that was sent by the security forces.

Additionally, the families of the jawans who will die in the frontlines shall also be given an ex gratia sum on behalf of the Government. The financial support will be given from 'Bharat Ke Veer' corpus, which was initially started by the Union home ministry in 2017. After the Pulwama attack in 2019, the entire country came forward to help the family members of the soldiers, and the amount in the fund surged to Rs 250 crore.

Notably, the government has developed a Web portal for people who want to donate to the fund. An official stated that the martyr status for soldiers who die due to Covid-19 infection will help the family. Through the web portal, people can directly send money to the families of the martyrs.

As per an official report, 8,113 soldiers of the security forces have contracted the coronavirus disease so far. The active cases in the forces stand at 3,562. while the recovered cases are 4,512. 39 coronavirus deaths have been registered in these forces with the maximum 15 fatalities in the CRPF, 10 in the BSF and nine in CISF, three in the ITBP, and two personnel in the SSB.

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