Srinagar: A hurdle has come in the way of smooth disposal of GoI’s flagship health scheme that offers up to Rs 5 lakh insurance cover to any admitted patient in any healthcare institute in Jammu and Kashmir. The scheme is Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), the earlier SEHAT scheme which was reintroduced in December as a universal health insurance for people from all economic backgrounds. According to it, a patient will be covered for up to 3 days of pre-hospitalisation and 15 days of post-hospitalisation expenses such as diagnostics and medicines. There is no restriction on family size, age or gender. However, scores of beneficiaries are unable to get the benefits that could save their lives in a health emergency, due to a technical hurdle.
This hurdle is in the procedure for registration under the scheme. An applicant should first have a ration card, which is mandatory, Naureen Raja, the communication officer of AB PM-JAY, told Kashmir Reader, and no one would get the benefit without the card. A number of applicants who due to many reasons had no ration card have been unable to register for the scheme.
Muhammad Sayeed, one such applicant, told Kashmir Reader that he had not applied for a ration card because his parents were financially well off, to be able to buy ration from the open market. The ration card, a government document which makes a person eligible to get rice, sugar, wheat and fuel at a subsidised rate, was not needed by his family, Sayeed said. The government later made modifications in rules to limit the free ration to only economically backward families. Those who were well-off were excluded.
Sayeed’s grandfather had never applied for the ration card, and this is now preventing the grandson from availing the benefit of the new scheme. The Director of Food and Consumer Supplies, Kashmir, Bashir Ahmad told Kashmir Reader that the applicant should file an application before the Tehsildar, and then go to his Tehsil Supply Officer. This will set in motion the process to get his card registered, he said.
However, even many of those who have a ration card are unable to secure the benefits. Their names do not figure in the government’s data. The Revenue department, over-burdened and notorious as one of the most corrupt departments, has been asked to get beneficiaries registered within a span of seven days. More than 12 days have passed for Ali Muhammad, one of the sufferers, but he is still unable to get it done.
“They keep telling me every day to come the next day,” he said.
The scheme could have helped him at his above 70 years of age, but instead he has become another name in the long list of those who have been denied the benefits.
As of now, more than 30 lakh beneficiaries have been able to draw the benefits of the scheme. But a procedural hassle is preventing many others to avail the same benefits that they are entitled to.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz