Bengal’s health scheme better than Centre’s: TMC

However, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Minister of State for Health, said that, BJP leaders are talking on that out of “frustration”. She claimed that the Bengal government already introduced ‘Sasthya Sathi Scheme’ for all people of West Bengal which is much better that ‘Ayushman Bharat’. Talking about the Swastha Sathi scheme, she said, “Our health scheme is better than Modi’s. They should take some ideas from Mamata Banerjee. Our scheme covers the beneficiary and the extended family members. The central scheme does not have that provision. Why do we need to take such schemes for which we have to give a share?”

“Under the new provisions of Swastha Sathi, everybody in Bengal can get the benefits of a Rs 5-lakh insurance cover,” she said.

According to the TMC, the Duare Sarkar outreach programme has reached more than 1 crore people till date. The initiative to bring 12 government projects to the people, now in its second phase, has reached almost 1.42 crore people. As of December 20, there have been 11,056 camps. In Murshidabad, North and South 24 Parganas, the highest number of people visited the camps, which was about 39 lakh. The second phase of this innovative program of the Government of West Bengal started on December 15 and will continue till December 24, 2020. Covid tests are also being conducted in the camps on the initiative of the local administration. The government has released Rs 8,700 crore for this. According to TMC, in Duare Sarkar programme, utmost priority was given to including people in Sasthya Sathi Scheme and it gained immense popularity among the people.