Ensure PMJAY beneficiaries don’t suffer due to govt holidays, technical glitches: Former BJP minister

Kanani, a former minister of state for health and family welfare, demanded that the government review the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) scheme in the state to ensure that the beneficiaries do not face any difficulty.

Beneficiaries under the scheme get Rs 10 lakh medical insurance cover.

Kanani, while speaking on the budgetary demands of the Health and Family Welfare Department in the Assembly Tuesday, further demanded that the state government think about how people get unadulterated food and how those involved in adulteration get strict punishment.

He said that sometimes, patients don’t get approval under the PMJAY scheme for several days on the grounds that the server is down. “And because of that, the patient from a poor or middle-class family is forced to take treatment while arranging from his own pocket,” he said.

“The (health) department should find a way. If something wrong is being done, then it should be prevented. But, when it is genuine and the patient is poor or from middle class, it should be ensured that he is not deprived of the (benefits of the) scheme,” he added.

“Government schemes should be reviewed to see where people are facing difficulties, and one should find solutions,” Kanani said.

He indicated that at times, people do not get approval for several days under PMJAY if they face a health condition on weekends and the following week opens with a holiday.

“For this, research is required to be done to find ways to ensure that the patient gets treatment,” Kanani said.

Responding to him, health minister Rushikesh Patel said, “As on today, only 202 applications under PMJAY were pending and none of them was older than 24 hours…Instructions have been given to provide emergency treatment if anybody requires it.”

Food adulteration flagged

Kanani, who is a BJP MLA from Varachha Road constituency of Surat, said that another major health issue in the state is that of adulteration. He said that it is a pertinent question that where does one go to have good,unadulterated food.

“There is no remedy to it. There is no strict law, no strict action. As Raksha Bandhan arrives, raids are conducted at the shops selling sweets and samples are taken. Then the report of the samples comes four or five or six days later. (By then) the sweets are consumed and then the samples fail the test,” Kanani said.

He added, “People earn lakhs of rupees by adulteration (in food). But they get released paying a nominal fine…This is a very serious issue. People’s lives are being tampered with. I request the honourable minister that something should be thought about this. How do people get clean food and the adulteration stops? I believe that attempts should be made to ensure that those doing adulteration are strictly punished.”

On Kanani’s views related to adulteration as serious health issue in the state, Patel said, “A decision has been taken to establish a new food and drug laboratory in Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad to ensure speedy availability of quality medicines in government clinics and local markets…Three laboratories are functional in Vadodara, Bhuj and Rajkot.”

He added that four new laboratories are going to be functional in the future. And because of that, he added, the time period to get sample results will be reduced from 30 days to 10 days in food samples and from 60 days to 20 days in case of drugs. He also pointed out that the state government had carried out a campaign to catch and punish those doing adulteration.