Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, be conferred upon doctors and healthcare workers who lost their lives fighting Covid-19.
“This year ‘Indian Doctor’ should get Bharat Ratna. ‘Indian Doctor’ means all doctors, nurses and paramedics. This will be a true tribute to the martyred doctors. It will be an honour for those who serve without worrying about their lives and their families. The whole country will be happy with this,” Kejriwal wrote.
In the letter, Kejriwal stated: “The way healthcare workers have served the country at the time of the pandemic cannot be forgotten, so the entire healthcare community should be honoured… There can be no better way to honour them.”
The Delhi CM, in his letter to the Prime Minister, suggested that rules be tweaked so that all healthcare workers can be honoured together as a group. “If there is any problem in giving Bharat Ratna to doctors, then it should be removed. If needed, the rules can also be changed. The whole country is grateful to the doctors at this time. If they were given Bharat Ratna, then the whole country is grateful,” he said.
The Indian Medical Association has said that 798 doctors, including 128 in Delhi, have died during the virulent second wave of infections. Apart from this, many other healthcare workers have also lost their lives due to the pandemic.
The Kejriwal government of Delhi is also giving a compensation of Rs 1 crore to all the frontline workers who die from Covid-19.