The Times of India 30.08.2012
Civic body’s health scheme for poor may benefit more
PUNE: More poor people could avail of health benefits if the proposal
to raise the annual income criteria for the beneficiaries is approved.
The Pune Municipal Corporation has a health scheme
for the below poverty line (BPL) people with an annual income of less
than Rs 1 lakh. The scheme was started on January 26, 2010. The civic
body pays medical bills up to Rs 1 lakh for treatment in listed private
hospitals. As many as 44 private hospitals in the city have been
designated to provide medical care to the urban poor under the scheme.
The proposal to expand the annual income criteria to Rs 2 lakh was
tabled before the civic women and child welfare committee recently.
“Considering, the inflation rates, we had tabled the proposal to
increase the annual income criteria,” said NCP corporator Vishal Tambe.
He added that more poor people could avail of the scheme’s benefits if
the income criterion is raised. The committee has forwarded the proposal
to the civic administration.
Minal Sarvade, chairman of women
and child welfare committee, said, “The committee members have discussed
the proposal and forwarded it to the civic administration. The
committee will take a final call once we hear from it.”
The city
has an estimated 14 lakh people living in slums, mostly deprived of
basic medical facilities, but the civic body’s health scheme for urban
poor has benefited around 5,000 people in the last year. The financial
allocation for the scheme in 2011-12 is Rs 7 crore of which Rs 4 crore
has been utilized. In 2010-2011, only Rs 1 crore was spent, while the
total allocation was Rs 10 crore.
