Fund Crunch Halts Telangana Police Health Scheme

Hyderabad:The Telangana police department faced a fund crunch which badly impacted on the police personnel and their family members after the hospitals started refusing to provide medical assistance under Arogya Bhadratha scheme. However, the senior police officials, who noticed the seriousness of the issue, brought the issue to the notice of the state government seeking immediate financial assistance.

Sources said that the then BRS government, which claimed to have given top priority for the police department, had failed to clear previous dues to the empaneled hospitals last year. It was reported that around Rs 200 crore funds have been paid to the hospitals for the past one and half year.

With the hospitals bearing the burden due to nonpayment of dues, the hospital management started refusing to admit police personnel and their family members in emergency situations. The police officials also stated that the department reduces non recovery payments from every policemen's salary from the rank of home guard to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) for medical expenses and others.

Recently, a group of policemen created several WhatsApp groups adding policemen as members in an attempt to pay their own amount to private insurance agencies for health insurance to their family members. The issue also brought the notice of higher officials.

It was also reported that the senior police officials wrote to hospital managements to allow their personnel admitting hospitals in providing proper treatment. Meanwhile, the similar issue also prevailed in the Bhadratha scheme which collects an amount from policemen and returns the amount with 5 percent of interest at the time of retirement. A policeman said that recently an employee of a law enforcement agency applied for returns for his daughter's marriage and it delayed the process at least one year.