State Govt employees anxious on AAUY
PNS n Dehradun
In absence of state administration’s initiative to include, the state government employees in the Atal Ayushman Uttarakhand Yojana (AAUY), thousands of serving and retired state government employees are anxiously waiting for the final decision of government on the issue. The anxiety of the government employees is understandable as the state administration is yet to issue the Government Order (GO) for the extension of AAUY for the state government employees and the existing benefit U health card has been suspended.
The officiating general secretary of the Rajya Karmchari Sanyukt Parishad (RKSP), Arun Pandey told The Pioneer that he had sent a letter to the chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh last month. In the letter, he had reminded that the employees were assured that a separate GO for the state government employees would be released to bring them under the ambit of the AAUY.
Pandey said that the state government had assured that the cashless health cover to the state government employees would be on the lines of the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS). He claimed that the rates of the packages offered by the state government to the panelled hospitals under AAUY are less as compared to the CGHS due to which the private hospitals are refusing to treat the patients.
The employee leader said that the RKSP would soon raise the issue as it concerns with the welfare of the employees. He said that there are inherent flaws in the AAUY which are needed to be rectified.
After the employees are brought into its ambit, an amount depending on the grade pay would be deducted from their salaries and they would be provided unlimited cashless cover under the scheme. At present the state government is providing an annual cover of Rs 5 lakh per year for the families of the covered individuals.
It is worth mentioning here that the state government had decided to merge the existing U- health card scheme to cover over 2.6 lakh state government employees. Under the scheme, it is expected that the an annual premium of Rs 4800 would be charged from the employee having grade pay in excess of Rs 6600 while those getting a grade pay of Rs 4200 to Rs 5400, a sum of Rs 3600 would be levied. For employees with less grade pay the AAUY can charge a sum of Rs 100 per month.
The employees want that the renowned multispecialty hospitals in private sector should be brought into the panel of AAUY and the practice of referral from the government hospitals should be done away for them.