Mumbai: Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan has raised questions over Ayushman Bharat, the ambitious healthcare scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr Chavan has said that the scheme launched by the Congress government in Maharashtra was far better and more accommodative than Ayushman Bharat. He alleged that the current scheme was a public relations stunt as the Modi government “lacked the required funds”.
Mr Chavan alleged, “The BJP-Sena government renamed the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevan-dayee Yojana as the Mahatma Phule Jan Arogya Yojana last year, and is launching Ayushman Bharat this year as part of the repeated PR stun-ts being carried out in name of healthcare.”
Mr Chavan claimed that the BJP government had consistently cut spending on healthcare over the course of its three years in office. “The government cut MJPJAY’s spending by nearly 50 per cent in 2018-19 compared to last year and allocated only Rs 576 crore against last year’s outlay of Rs 1,316 crore," he said.
