New Delhi, Dec. 7: Shri. Vishal Jolly, National Executive Member- BJP met Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, Hon’ble Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Government of India at New Delhi and requested him for integration of Ration Card (APL) data of A&N Islands in BIS 2.0 at the earliest for enabling the eligible Islanders to avail the benefits under PMJAY-Ayushman Bharat Scheme.
He pointed out that the PMJAY being a family-based scheme, all the members of the eligible families are covered under the scheme and a unique PMJAY ID is created for the eligible beneficiaries through the application called Beneficiary Identification System (BIS).
He further pointed out that the family-wise data of all the eligible beneficiary families is loaded in this application and PMJAY card is created by verifying/matching the individual’s identity and his/her family details as per the documents provided by such person with the data which is already loaded in the BIS.
As per the directions of the Ministry of Home Affairs, GoI, the Andaman & Nicobar Administration had merged the UT Health Scheme ANISHI with AB-PMJAY on 15.08.2020. Subsequent to the merger, the following categories of beneficiary families are eligible under PMJAY in A & N Islands.
The database of all the under mentioned categories of beneficiaries is loaded in BIS 1.0 and cards were being successfully created till "12th September 2023".
The data source for category a) is SECC 2011 and the data source for the remaining categories is the Ration Card database of A & N Islands.
The following are those categories:-
- a) Eligible families as per SECC 2011.
- b) NFSA Families (PHH and AAY).
- c) Resident families with annual income below Rs 3 Lakhs.
- d) Pensioners of A & N Administration and their dependents.
It was further placed that the data of all the above categories of beneficiaries is loaded in BIS 1.0 and cards were being successfully created till 12th September 2023. The data source for category a) is SECC 2011 and the data source for the remaining categories is the Ration Card database of A & N Islands.
Further, the data of categories c) and d) have not been loaded by National Health Authority (NHA) in BIS 2.0 due to some reasons and as a result of which, the Health Department is not able to create PMJAY Cards for these beneficiaries since the last two months.
Despite suffering from various serious ailments/diseases and being referred by the G.B. Pant Hospital to any of the authorised Hospital at Chennai or Kolkata, these poor patients are unable to undertake medical treatment and avail the benefits under the PMJAY-Ayushman Bharat Scheme for the past more than two months, which is a serious issue.
The Minister was also made aware that the A&N Administration has taken up this issue and made correspondences in this regard by sharing the required ration card data of A&N Islands containing the details of beneficiary families belonging to the categories c) and d) above with National Health Authority (NHA), but the issue has not been resolved yet.
Jolly therefore requested the Minister that the integration of Ration Card (APL) data of A & N Islands in BIS 2.0 may kindly be carried out forthwith in order to ensure that all the eligible categories of beneficiaries are able to avail the benefits.
The Hon'ble Minister has taken a very serious note of the issue and very positively assured that the issue would be resolved on priority basis at the earliest possible time, without any delay.