Congress legislator from Mulugu D. Anasuya alias Seethakka has requested Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to include COVID-19 treatment under the Aarogyasri scheme so that members of many poor families succumbing to the virus infection due to their inability to bear the hospitalisation expenses could get cashless treatment.
Ms. Seethakka, along with State president of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the students wing of Congress, B. Venkat launched an indefinite hunger strike at the Indira Park protest camp here on Monday demanding inclusion of COVID treatment under the Aarogyasri scheme and arranging free ambulance facility to bring COVID-positives to hospitals.
Speaking at the protest held under the aegis of NSUI, she said the State government had agreed in the past to include COVID treatment under the Aarogyasri scheme after the first wave of the pandemic last year, but had been keeping silent on it since then. “There’s nothing valuable than people’s lives to any government and development does not mean building unwanted monuments – office complexes. It lies in the improved living standards of people,” she noted.
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Such basic decisions were expected from any responsible government at a time when the coronavirus infection was on the upswing , the Congress leader said adding that most of the working class were facing the threat of contracting the virus infection as part of their livelihood activities but they had no resources to bear the huge hospitalisation expenses.
People who were not in a position to afford medical expenses need some assurance on treatment in the event of they getting infected with COVID-19 and getting hospitalised, Ms. Seethakka said. She stated that people had no faith in public health facilities including Gandhi Hospital as no known elected representative had got admitted there or taken treatment for COVID-19 infection in spite of all the tall claims by the government.
She alleged that the government had washed off its hands on the COVID issue last year by declaring after the lockdown period that it was inevitable for the society to live with coronavirus. She made the demand in July last too.
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