While welcoming Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s launching of Smart Health Cards for 3.30 crore people, Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik on Wednesday demanded that all the people of the State be covered under the scheme.
Patnaik questioned why remaining one crore population shall be deprived of the benefit because, he said, as many as 90 lakh of them cannot afford even Rs 2 lakh for medical expenses leave aside Rs 5 lakh.
When West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already announced to cover all the 9 crore people for health cards, why not in Odisha, asked Patnaik.On the other hand, the BJP termed the Smart Health Card announcement by Patnaik as nothing but an “election pushing card” gimmick to hoodwink people as panchayat and municipal polls are approaching.
When the Biju Swasthya Klayan Yojana is still not implemented in all the 30 districts, the CM has announced the Smart Card system to cover up the failure, said party State general secretary Lekhasri Samantsinghar.She said that while 28 lakh people of the State were already covered under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and the Modi Government was all set to cover a larger section of people in the State under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, the BJD Government was reluctant to be part of the national programme.