THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has said the LDF Government was after implementing the Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CHIS) as it wanted to help private hospitals. Inaugurating a dawn-to-dusk fast observed by former health minister and Congress MLA V S Sivakumar in front of the Secretariat on Saturday.
The protest was held against the LDF Government’s move to wind up health schemes meant for the poor including ‘Karunya’ and ‘Sukrutham’ introduced by the UDF Government.
Chennithala said the move to implement CHIS showed the government’s negative attitude towards the pro-poor schemes of the previous government. It was denying the benefits of the schemes to over 40 lakh people who would have benefited from the scheme.
He said the UDF would take up the matter and raise it in the Assembly. The Congress MLA’s hunger strike assumes significance as the government will present the budget on March 3 and there would be announcement to merge the previous government’s schemes under one comprehensive scheme.