Purulia, Jan 21 (PTI) Senior Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday claimed that had the West Bengal government implemented the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme, over 90
per cent of the state’s population would have been deprived of its benefits due to what he described as stringent eligibility conditions.
Without directly referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent attack on the Trinamool government over the non-implementation of the central scheme during his recent visit to the state, Banerjee said Bengal’s own Swasthya Sathi health scheme was accessible to all as it came with no conditions.
"They claim that the Mamata Banerjee government has blocked the Ayushman Bharat scheme in Bengal. I want to tell the people that you would be disqualified from the scheme if you own a smartphone or a TV, a motorcycle, a radio, or even if you have a concrete roof over your head. These conditions have been fixed by the Modi government," Banerjee said at the TMC Rana Sankalp Sabha (war resolve rally) in Purulia district.
"But Swasthya Sathi comes with no such conditions, which is why its benefits are accessible to all," he said.
Considered a BJP stronghold where the saffron camp wrested six of the nine assembly seats in the district in 2021, including the Kashipur constituency where Banerjee held his Wednesday's rally, the TMC leader asserted that the Mamata Banerjee administration made no distinction between those who voted for the TMC and those who didn't and extended the state's cashless health benefits to all 28 lakh people in Purulia.
"Had Bengal implemented Ayushman Bharat, only 90 lakh out of its 10 crore people would have qualified to receive the scheme's benefits, leaving the remaining 9.1 crore citizens high and dry. The Swasthya Sathi scheme, on the other hand, is available to all 10 crore people. Now you tell me which you prefer, Ayushman Bharat or Swasthya Sathi?" the leader added.
During his BJP public meeting at Malda on January 17, where he outlined the party's pitch for the high-stakes assembly elections likely to take place in April, Modi said that the TMC blocked the central health scheme because it "doesn't care about people's sufferings and is only interested in filling its own coffers".
"Today, Bengal is the only state where the Ayushman Bharat scheme has not been implemented. The TMC government is preventing my brothers and sisters in Bengal from availing the benefits of the Ayushman scheme. It is essential to bid farewell to such a cruel and heartless government from Bengal," Modi had said.
Stating that the monthly cash incentive 'Lakshmir Bhandar' scheme for women is being handed out to beneficiaries, Banerjee alleged that the BJP has, instead, blocked funds meant for the poor and backward communities of the state because it "failed to win elections here".
"The BJP currently rules 15 states in the country. I challenge that party to implement a condition-free scheme like Lakshmir Bhandar for women in any of those states," Banerjee said.
Banerjee, also the TMC's national general secretary, pledged to take up the governance issues which have been highlighted by the electorate here "once Purulia renders a 9-0 verdict in favour of the TMC" in state polls.
"I have been apprised of the issues regarding railway connectivity in this district. I promise to take a 20-member delegation to the railways ministry to voice the people's demands within three months of the election results," he said.
Banerjee also pledged to shoulder responsibility of fulfilling local demands for health and civic infrastructure improvement within six months of the polls. PTI SMY MNB
