BJD, BJP differ over Ayushman Bharat scheme at Chief Minister’s meeting in Puri

The state government has not responded to the appeals made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2019 general elections to implement the Centres flagship health scheme in Odisha.While launching the smart card distribution, Patnaik said around 3.64 lakh people in Puri district will benefit from this universal health coverage scheme.

A BJD parliamentarian exchanged barbs with a BJP MLA over the implementation of the Centre’s flagship Ayushman Bharat Scheme in Odisha in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at a meeting in Puri district on Thursday. While attending the meeting, BJP MLA of Brahmagiri Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra urged the chief minister to implement the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat Scheme which he claimed would provide better healthcare facilities to people. However, Puri’s BJD MP Pinaki Mishra, who was the next speaker, rejected the claim, saying the Odisha government’s ‘Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana’ (BSKY) was the “best health assurance scheme” in the country.

“Within a year or two, you will find many states following Odisha’s BSKY model. Even the Centre will follow the BSKY,” Mishra said.

Patnaik was in Brahmaguri for launching the distribution of smart health cards to beneficiaries under the BSKY in the district. The state government has several times rejected the Centre’s appeal to implement the Ayushman Bharat Scheme in Odisha on the grounds of the state scheme being a better one, having special arrangements for women up to Rs 10 lakh. The state government has not responded to the appeals made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2019 general elections to implement the Centre’s flagship health scheme in Odisha.

While launching the smart card distribution, Patnaik said around 3.64 lakh people in Puri district will benefit from this universal health coverage scheme. The programme has already been launched in Malkangiri, Sundergarh, Bolangir, and Gajapati districts. He said the beneficiaries are getting treatment just by showing the smart card and no fee is charged from them. Speaking on the development of Puri, the chief minister said “The development of Puri, the seat of Lord Jagannath, is our sacred responsibility”. Claiming that Puri is the first town in the country to get ‘Drink From Tap’ facility, the chief minister said, the people of the pilgrim town are getting the same benefits as residents of London and New York. Patnaik said as many as 3.5 crore people from 96 lakh households in the state, especially those having financial constraints, will get immense benefit from the smart health card.

“Now people can get hassle-free treatment in 200 prominent hospitals of the country free of cost just by carrying this smart health card,” he said.

The chief minister also laid foundation stones for several projects worth Rs 1,000 crore for Puri district.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)