Satyendra Jain, Health Minister in the Delhi government, has stated that the Aam Aadmi Party will not implement the Ayushman Bharat Yojana in the national capital. Instead, what the party is promising is free healthcare for all.
Delhi Health Min on Ayushman Bharat Yojana in Delhi: We’ll provide health facility to 100% population here. We won’t pick&choose. That isn’t needed in Delhi,both poor&rich will receive treatment. It’s the responsibility of Delhi govt to provide treatment to all residents of Delhi pic.twitter.com/hqKj652toR
— ANI (@ANI) June 4, 2019
Speaking to media during his visit to the GTB hospital, the Delhi Minister told ANI, “First central government needs to provide to the benefits of Ayushman Bharat Yojana in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Around 70% of patients are coming here from Uttar Pradesh. Modi ji did nothing there. We will not differentiate between rich and poor. We will not allow this yojana as government hospital and medical check-ups are for all.”
“They just implement policies on papers, the ground reality is different. If the policy was implemented, people from Uttar Pradesh would have been treated in the state,” Jain said. “Delhi has a population of 2 crores, it will be applicable to 10 lakh people. There is no need to pick and choose. We will treat every patient in Delhi,” he added.
It is further reported that as a consequence of the flippant attitude of the Arvind Kejriwal government, people from other states can get free treatment in many private hospitals in Delhi as the central government has signed MOUs with them but citizens of Delhi cannot as the AAP government has refused to join the scheme.
Any other person can get treatment under Ayushman Bharat at Govt hospitals & many private hospitals in Delhi, except the citizens of Delhi! This piquant situation as Centre signed MoU with all major Delhi hospitals but Delhi Govt does not wish to join the scheme! https://t.co/fTDVeAcItC
— Aman Sharma (@AmanKayamHai_ET) June 4, 2019
It appears to be another instance of people suffering due to their elected representatives’ personal vendetta against Narendra Modi. In West Bengal, too, Mamata Banerjee had pulled out of the scheme after accusing Modi of taking credit for the scheme which is funded by the central government.
