New Delhi: While launching development projects related to healthcare and extending his government’s flagship health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat to all senior citizens aged 70 years and above, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday apologized to the elderly population in Bengal and Delhi as they would not be able to avail the benefits due to the non-implementation of the schemes by the governments there for ‘political reasons.’
“I apologise to all the elderly people above 70 years of age in Delhi and all the elderly people above 70 years of age in West Bengal that I will not be able to serve you,” Modi said, according to the ANI.
“I will get the information, but I will not be able to help you (people above 70 in Delhi and Bengal) and the reason is that the government in Delhi and the government in West Bengal are not joining this Ayushman Yojana,” he added.
He targeted the Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) governments in Bengal and Delhi respectively by stating that the tendency to oppress ailing people for political interests was inhuman.
Under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) health insurance scheme, people aged above 70 years will get a health cover up to ₹ Rs 5 lakh annually. Those already covered under the Ayushman Bharat scheme will also get an additional top-up of ₹ 5 lakh. The scheme targets to benefit about 6 crore senior citizens. The PM claimed that around 4 crore people in the country had already got benefitted from the scheme.
“There was a time when people’s houses, lands, jewellery were sold for treatment. The soul of the poor trembled on hearing the cost of treatment for a serious disease. The helplessness of not being able to get treatment due to lack of money would shatter the poor. I could not see my poor brothers and sisters in this helplessness. That is why the ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme was born,” he added, as quoted by NDTV.
Under the scheme, the Centre and state governments bear the cost of premiums in a 60-40 ratio. Both Bengal and Delhi governments have their own health insurance schemes. Both these governments had claimed time and again that their schemes were better than the Centre’s plan.
Health projects worth Rs 12,850 crore launched
The PM launched a slew of health projects worth Rs 12,850 crore. He also shared the five highlights of a national health policy. “First is preventive healthcare, second is timely intervention, third is affordable treatment and medicines, fourth is robust facilities and qualified doctors in small cities and the fifth is use of advanced technology. India now looks at healthcare with a holistic viewpoint,” he said.
