The Supreme Court on Monday directed all states and Union Territories to ensure payment of compensation to family members of COVID-19 victims without wasting any time.

A bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna said that if any claimant has grievance with respect to the non-payment of compensation and/or rejection of their claim then they may approach the grievance redressal committee concerned.

It also directed the grievance redressal committee to decide the application of the claimant within four weeks.

With regard to the plea alleging transfer of funds by the Andhra Pradesh government from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) to personal deposit accounts, the bench directed the funds be transferred to the SDRF account within two days.

"We close the proceedings while directing all the states to see that the compensation payable under our earlier order be made to eligible persons without wasting any time and if any claimant has any grievance they may approach the concerned grievance redressal committee," the bench said.

The top court had earlier granted a "last opportunity" to the Andhra Pradesh government to file its response on a plea alleging transfer of funds by the state from the SDRF to personal deposit accounts and had restrained the state government from diverting the funds and issued notice to it in the matter.

Advocate Gaurav Bansal, appearing for petitioner Palla Srinivasa Rao, had submitted that Andhra Pradesh has diverted funds from the SDRF to personal deposit accounts which is not permissible under the Disaster Management Act.

He had alleged that the state government was illegally utilising the funds of the SDRF for purposes other than specified under Section 46 (2) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

Over 800 cases in 24 hours

On Monday, India logged 16,935 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,37,67,534, while the daily positivity rate was recorded above six per cent after 161 days, according to the updated data of the Union Health Ministry. The active cases have increased to 1,44,264, while the death toll has climbed to 5,25,760 with 51 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The active cases comprise 0.33 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.47 per cent, the ministry said.

An increase of 815 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

Positivity rate at 6.48%

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 6.48 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 4.58 per cent, according to the ministry.

Over 86.96 crore total tests for detection of COVID-19 have been conducted so far with 2,61,470 tests being in conducted in the last 24 hours, it said.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,30,97,510 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.20 per cent.

Over 200cr vaccine doses

According to the ministry, over 200 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.