Though the Chief Minister’s Insurance Scheme has won accolades from several quarters, the non-implementation of Centrally-sponsored Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) has led to the State losing out on Union government grant worth several crores.
According to info provided under the RTI by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the present State government has not received any RSBY allocation.
Replying to an RTI filed by activist Y Aruldoss of Unorganised Workers Federation, the Under-Secretary of the Ministry stated that the Centre did not allocate any fund for Tamil Nadu from 2010-11 to 2012-13.
Sources told Express that the State had preferred Chief Minister’s Insurance scheme over RSBY, a cashless national health insurance welfare scheme to provide protection to BPL households from financial liabilities arising out of health setbacks involving hospitalisation, holding it to be far better than the Central scheme.
A sum of Rs 1.61 crore was allocated to the State in 2008-09, of the total of `99.54 crore.
In these five years, the Centre increased the allocation by more than 10 times. While the grant under RSBY in 2012-13 was Rs 993.64 crore, the same stood at Rs 1,265 crore in the current year.