Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday said Odisha would provide smart health cards to 3.5 crore people in the State under Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY), which would enable each family to get treatment cost up to ₹5 lakh per annum.
Odisha is said to be the first State in the country to provide such smart health cards.
Addressing the State-level 75th Independence Day celebrations here, Mr. Patnaik said. “all the people of entire Odisha are my family. The news of people selling land, jewellery or stop sending children to school to manage their treatment costs pains me. Therefore, I decided that this type of distress must end. People should get hassle-free quality treatment at best available health care facilities.”
The BSKY was redesigned to provide smart health cards to people that would work as a debit cards for a certain amount, he said.
According to the re-launched BSKY, each family can avail treatment cost up to ₹5 lakh per annum while women members can avail this benefit up to ₹10 lakh every year. The health scheme is meant for 3.5 crore people in 96 families.
Stating that the initiative would transform health service delivery system and create history in the health sector of the country, Mr. Patnaik said the beneficiaries could avail health services in more than 200 hospital chains of the country, including Odisha.
“This card will be given to all the beneficiaries phase wise. Beneficiaries of national and State food security schemes, Annapurna and Antodaya, will get this card. It will go a long way in strengthening health security of people of Odisha,” said Mr. Patnaik.
The Chief Minister expressed satisfaction over the Indian men’s hockey team winning a medal at Olympics after a gap of 40 years.
Stating that investment in youth was an investment in the future, he assured that all kinds of help would be extended to make the Indian hockey team the best again in the world.
Under 5T (team work, technology, transparency, transformation and time limit) action plan, 1,072 schools had been transformed in the first phase, said Mr. Patnaik. Similarly, more than 5.00,000 alumni had come forward to develop 32,000 schools under ‘Mo School’ campaign.
Describing COVID-19 as the biggest health crisis in the world history, the Chief Minister hoped that the human race would surely succeed in tackling the pandemic. He said Odisha was proud of helping in saving a lot of precious lives by supplying medical oxygen to 17 States non-stop for two months.
There has been no untoward incident reported during the Independence Day celebrations in left wing extremism-affected districts.
