Irked by the Centre claiming all the credit and refusing to give any to the State in the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material regarding the Ayushman Bharat-Arogya Karnataka (AB-ArK) scheme, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has written to the Centre seeking due share of credit.
In the letter, addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sent on Friday, the Chief Minister has said that according to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the State and the National Health Authority (NHA), all IEC material, including advertisements and promotions in the media, should carry photographs, if required, of political functionaries from both the Centre and State.
Of the 120 lakh families covered under the scheme, 62.2 lakh families receive the benefits of the Centre’s assistance as they were previously covered under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana. Expenditure on the remaining 58 lakh families is borne by the State, the letter states. “From its inception on October 30 till date, under the AB-ArK scheme, Karnataka has borne ₹139 crore of the total expenditure of ₹161 crore. The Centre’s contribution is a mere ₹22 crore,” the letter says.
Of the 40,483 beneficiaries who have availed treatment under the scheme so far, only 9,970 have been covered using Central funds.
PM’s letters
“Now, it has come to our knowledge that the Prime Minister has addressed letters to beneficiaries of the scheme, along with dummy health cards containing details of the family members eligible under the Centre’s component of the scheme. This has created a lot of confusion on the field,” the letter states. “Despite the MoU, these letters carry photographs of only the Prime Minister. Further, the State government was not consulted while sending these letters... it is requested that in future, advertisements, promotions and communication to beneficiaries be released only after due consultation with the State. If photographs are to be used, photographs of State functionaries should also be posted along with those of the Centre, as agreed upon in the MoU.”