Kolkata, June 8 (IANS) West Bengal will be linked to Ayushman Bharat, the Central health insurance scheme, from Monday, with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the state government and the National Health Authority (NHA) to be signed later in the day in the national capital.

The MoU will be signed in the presence of Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda and West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. With the signing of the MoU, West Bengal will be the 36th state to get linked to the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

Ayushman Bharat was introduced by the Union Government in 2018. However, the previous Mamata Banerjee-led and Trinamool Congress-ruled state government in West Bengal refused to get linked to the Central scheme, because of the presence of Swastha Sathi, the state’s own health insurance scheme introduced by the previous state government.

CM Adhikari had earlier announced that the six crore existing Swastha Sathi beneficiaries in the state would be linked to the Ayushman Bharat scheme and new applications could be enrolled under the Central scheme.

To recall, when the Prime Minister addressed a campaign rally before the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly polls, he had accused the then Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal of depriving the people of the state of the benefits of several Central schemes, including Ayushman Bharat.

When the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in the state, work quickly started to link the state to all Central schemes, including Ayushman Bharat.

In fact, while addressing the media persons last month at the state secretariat, Nabanna, the Chief Minister gave detailed statistics on how the people of West Bengal were deprived of benefits under different Central schemes by the previous Trinamool government.

The beneficiaries under the previous Swastha Sathi scheme often complained that several private medical institutes were reluctant to honour the Swastha Sathi card. On the other hand, private medical institutes complained about delays in getting the treatment charges reimbursed from the state exchequer.

–IANS

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