Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Pratap Singh Bajwa on Friday alleged that the state’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has misused more than Rs 500 crore allocated under the Centre’s flagship health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
Senior Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa said that due to this misuse, private hospitals were not paid their dues for the treatment of the beneficiaries of the scheme.
He alleged that instead of paying the dues of the hospitals, the government spent this money on advertisements, purchase of new vehicles and renovation of the houses of ministers and MLAs.
Treatment of Ayushman beneficiaries stopped in private hospitals
Bajwa also claimed that the AAP government has also failed to follow the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He said that due to non-release of funds, many private hospitals have stopped treating patients under the scheme. Due to which lakhs of patients of Punjab could not get its benefit.
Under this scheme, cashless and paperless treatment facility is available in government and listed private hospitals. Initially, 16.65 lakh families were covered under this central government program.
But in 2022, the then Congress government decided to expand the scheme to the families of farmers and those who were not covered under any health scheme, adding 22.12 lakh more beneficiary families.