BJP-ruled states' prep for Ayushman Bharat scheme irks PM Modi

New Delhi: With the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government all set to launch its ambitious Ayushman Bharat scheme on September 25, which envisages a health insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 crore for the rural poor annually who are outside the insurance net, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed unhappiness over inadequate preparations on the part of several BJP-led states towards implementing the project.

Also as several Opposition-ruled states such as Karnataka, Punjab, Odisha, Telangana, Kerala and Delhi have not yet come on board in terms of participating in the scheme, the Prime Minister has urged them to cooperate and adopt it.

In a high-level review meeting which the Prime Minister recently undertook to oversee the preparations of the scheme’s launch on Jan Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya’s birth anniversary, he asked top officials of the state government of poll-bound Rajasthan, as well as those of Maharashtra, Goa, Bihar (where the BJP is in alliance with the JDU) and Jammu & Kashmir (which is currently under President’s Rule, but where the BJP ran a coalition government with the PDP for more than two years) to make extra efforts to ensure that the scheme takes off effectively in their respective states.

Highly-placed sources said that the Prime Minister was disappointed with the fact that the aforementioned states ruled by the BJP and its allies have not made proper preparations towards implementation of the NDA government’s flagship scheme even though only a few days are left for its official launch.
He is learnt to have asked the chief secretaries of these states during the meeting to take extra measures to implement the scheme.

Mr Modi also asked officials from Opposition-ruled states to expedite the process of signing pacts with the Centre as soon as possible, so that Ayushman Bharat can take off.

Under Ayushman Bharat, the Union Health Ministry plans to hire Ayushman Mitras, who will help in identifying beneficiaries for the scheme. Sources said that these ‘Mitras’ are to be selected from hospitals’ own staff.

The Prime Minister, sources added, emphasised on this aspect and is learnt to have directed health ministry officials to ensure that the Ayushman Mitras are selected from hospitals’ staff only. 

He is also learnt to have asked the ministry as well as the states’ officials to streamline and expedite all aspects related to Ayushman Bharat such as selecting health agencies in states, identification of beneficiaries as well as empanelment of hospitals and identification as well as training of Ayushman Mitras.

In his Independence Day speech, the Prime Minister had announced that Ayushman Bharat scheme would be launched on September 25 this year.

The scheme will target poor, deprived rural families and identify occupational category of urban workers’ families — 8.03 crore in rural and 2.33 crore in urban areas, as per the latest SECC data. It will cover around 50 crore people. 

The Centre has allocated about Rs 10,000 crore for the project.