The Railways has lost 2,903 employees due to COVID-19, minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed Parliament on Friday.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, he said settlement of dues has been made with families of deceased Railway employees in 2,782 cases.
"Indian Railways has a policy for giving appointment on compassionate ground to dependents of Railway servants who lose their lives in the course of duty or die in harness or are medically incapacitated.
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"Dependents of family members of Railway employees who lost their life to COVID-19 are covered under the scheme of compassionate ground appointment," Vaishnaw said.
Out of a total of 2,903 cases of deaths due to COVID-19, compassionate appointments have been provided in 1,732 cases, he said, adding 8,63,868 Railway employees have been given the first dose of vaccine and 2,34,184 the second dose.
"A sufficient number of vaccination centres have been established and staff has been deployed for vaccination drive in Railways.
"Every effort is being made to vaccinate all Railway employees at the earliest subject to availability of vaccine doses and willingness of the employees to get vaccinated," Vaishnaw said.
India's tally of COVID-19 infections rose by 39,097 in a day to reach 3,13,32,159, while 546 more people succumbed to the viral disease during the same period taking the death toll to 4,20,016 on Saturday, according to Union Health Ministry data.
The number of active cases in the country has increased to 4,08,977, accounting for 1.34 per cent of the total caseload while the national COVID-19 recovery rate stood at 97.35 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.
An increase of 3,464 cases was recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a day.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has surged to 3,05,03,166, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.
The total number of Covid vaccine doses administered so far in the country has reached 42.78 crore.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 30-lakh mark on August 23, 40-lakh mark on September 5, and 50-lakh mark on September 16.
It went past 60 lakh on September 28 last year, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20, and the one-crore mark on December 19.
India crossed the grim milestone of two crore Covid cases on May 4 this year and the three-crore mark on June 23.