The Jagan Mohan Reddy-led Andhra Pradesh government on Friday decided to enhance by five times the upper limit of financial assistance being extended to the people below poverty line in private hospitals under YSR Arogya Sri scheme – from the existing ₹5 lakh to ₹25 lakh.
The decision was approved by the state cabinet which met at the secretariat in the afternoon, state minister for information and public relations Ch Srinivasa Venugopala Krishna told the reporters after the meeting.
“Hitherto, the upper limit for the poor people getting treatment in private hospitals under YSR Arogya Sri was ₹5 lakh. Now, it is being enhanced to ₹25 lakh. The government would spend ₹ 4,400 crore this year on this scheme,” the minister said, quoting the chief minister as saying.
He said this was apart from unlimited expenditure being incurred by the government on high-value procedures in diseases like cancer. In the last four years, the government had spent ₹1,897 crore on such procedures to help the poor people, he said.
He said Jagan would be launching distribution of new Arogya Sri cards with new features on December 18. “From the next day, the distribution would be taken up by the MLAs in at least five villages in their respective constituencies,” he said.
The chief minister asked all his cabinet colleagues and party MLAs to take this decision ahead of the next assembly elections in the state. “The entire campaign would be completed by the end or the first week of February,” Venugopala Krishna said.
The cabinet decided that a similar campaign will be taken up for phase-II of Arogya Suraksha programme from January 1. Under this programme, medicines will be directly supplied at the doorsteps of the patients, who get registered under the programme, through village clinics and volunteers.
“The patients, who undergo treatment under Arogya Sri, won’t have to run around medical shops to purchase medicines, as the government itself would supply them at their doorstep. The government would have a tie-up with the postal department in procuring and supply of medicines through village clinics,” the minister said.
The cabinet also decided to supply tabs to government school students studying in Class 8 with effect from December 21. “In all, 4.35 lakh tabs will be supplied to students at a cost of ₹638 crore. Similarly, it was decided to set up Interactive Flat Panel (IFP) in 62,000 classrooms for students of Class 6 and beyond,” he said.
The cabinet also decided to enhance social security pensions for old age persons under YSR Aasara programme from ₹2,750 per month to ₹3,000 per month. The additional burden on the state exchequer would be around ₹2,000 crore, the minister said, adding that the enhanced pensions would be distributed from January 10 to 23.
The cabinet also discussed the damaged caused to standing crops during the recent cyclone and the steps taken to avoid loss of lives and rehabilitation of the flood affected people.
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