NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea seeking direction to the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government for implementation of the NDA’s flagship Ayushman Bharat scheme in the national capital. A bench headed by Chief Justice Rajendra Menon dismissed the petition, stating that it was not inclined to interfere in policy matters.
The AAP-ruled Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana, Odisha, Kerala and Punjab are among the states that have not opted for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet scheme. In his plea, petitioner Abhijit Mishra had said that the AAP government had neither issued any notification nor made any effort to implement the healthcare scheme.
“The Government of NCT of Delhi has neither issued any notification nor has made any efforts to Implementation of the Ayushman Bharat- National Health Protection Mission in Delhi. Also, the NCT government has not formulated any health insurance and welfare schemes equivalent to the Ayushman Bharat- National Health Protection Mission for the citizens domiciled in Delhi,” his petition claimed.
It also contended that Delhi government has not signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the Centre for implementation of the scheme as on March 31, 2019.
The Ayushman Bharat envisages covering about 50 crore people from the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category across the country. Over 8,735 hospitals, both public and private, have been empanelled for the scheme, and as many as 31 states and Union territories have signed MoUs with the Centre to implement the programme. With agency inputs