More than 7,000 beneficiaries were treated under Ayushman Bharat Scheme in Jammu and Kashmir after August 5, 2019 when the internet services were snapped post abrogation of Article 370 of Indian Constitution. This was stated by Union Minister in Prime Minister’s Office Dr Jitendra Singh while speaking to the beneficiaries from parts of Udhampur, Doda, Kishtwar, Kathua and Reasi at an event organised on ‘Diwali Milan’ at his official residence. He announced that Jammu and Kashmir has topped in registration of beneficiaries under the aforesaid scheme in the past less than one year across the country. “Despite Ayushman Bharat being an online Scheme more than 7,000 cases of expenditure disposal were executed offline after August 5, when there was no internet connectivity in the State”, Singh said. He termed the beneficiaries of the aforesaid scheme as Modis of Ayushman and asked them to dispense awareness on the scheme to ensure that more and more people avail the benefit. He said that J&K has topped the chart of registration of beneficiaries under Ayushman scheme. Mobile internet was snapped in Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 after the Government of India abrogated Article 370 and bifurcated the State into two Union Territories. “More than 60 per cent beneficiaries were registered till date across the State from December 1, 2018, the date when this scheme was introduced. Around Rs 22.5 crore has been sanction under this scheme to various service providers out of which Rs 15.58 crore have already been paid to the hospitals by the Insurance company”, the minister said. “30 private and 126 public hospitals have also started giving benefits to the people having Golden Card,” said Singh adding that Modi Government never benefitted anyone for ‘vote-bank’ rather it is working for the masses. CEO/Director of Ayushman Bharat Scheme, J&K, Bhupinder Kumar divulged that so far over 37,000 beneficiaries have availed the benefits across the state and more than 11 lakh people have been issued the Golden Cards viz e-Cards. He said with revised rates, more hospitals including the corporate, will also be providing treatment to the beneficiaries under this scheme. “About 59 per cent of the hospitalisations happened in private hospitals and as on date, 156 hospitals are empanelled in the state of which 126 (81 per cent) are public hospitals and 30 (19 per cent) are private,” said the CEO. According to official records, till October 15, 2019, there were total 3,55,582 beneficiaries in Jammu district out of which 1,39,472 were registered so far and 39.42 per cent were treated.
