Nayagarh: Taking a dig at Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for being critical of Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY), 5T and Nabin Odisha Chairman V K Pandian on Wednesday threw an open challenge to the BJP leader to announce withdrawal of the health scheme in the saffron party’s election manifesto.
Addressing a meeting during his visit to Nayagarh district, Pandian said that the Union Minister has been criticising Odisha government’s health scheme BSKY and describing it as useless.
The BJD leader said that he heard the Union Minister saying at a public meeting in Sambalpur that BSKY is of little use and that people are facing a lot of hardship because of the scheme. The Minister also went to the extent of claiming that BSKY is not necessary for the people of Odisha, he said.
Pandian said if the Union Minister thinks that BSKY is of no use he can announce in the BJP poll manifesto that the scheme would be scrapped if the party comes to power. “If you (Dharmendra) have the courage, make it the number one agenda in the BJP poll manifesto to scrap BSKY,” he said.
The Union Minister would then see the response of the poor people of Odisha and know how useful it is in the state, said Pandian.
Earlier, during his visit to Sambalpur Dharmendra had lashed out at the Odisha government for not implementing Ayushman Bharat health scheme of the Centre. He had also claimed that a lot of money is being spent in advertising the scheme instead of sincerely providing help to the needy.
