Bhubaneswar: A five member delegation of Ayushman Bharat Scheme today held a discussion with Odisha Government officials for implementation of the central scheme.
Odisha Government had earlier refused to implement the Ayushman Bharat in the state saying that state funded Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) was a better scheme.
This has also led to political controversy with the BJP accusing Naveen Patnaik of not implementing the scheme owing to political rivalry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too had slammed the BJD government over the issue during election rallies in the state.
The delegation led by Ayushman Bharat CEO Indu Bhushan today met Health Naba Kishore Das and chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the state secretariat and told them that Odisha should take advantage of the national health assurance scheme.
Indu Bhushan praised the BSKY and said modalities are being chalked out to merge the Ayushman Bharat with BSKY in Odisha. “The state already has a very good and strong scheme. Our challenge is how to converge Ayushman Bharat with the existing scheme in the state,” said Bhusan.
On the other hand, Padhi said that the discussions are in the initial stage. “We had a preliminary discussion about the Ayushman Bharat scheme and Odisha Government’s BSKY scheme. We can reach at a conclusive point after 2-3 rounds of discussion,” said Padhi after the meeting.
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Ms Kalinga