Priyanka Gandhi counters Yogi Adityanath govt over health in Uttar Pradesh

NEW DELHI: The Yogi Adityanath government of the BJP in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh (UP) may have declared that Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) is its main rival, but the Congress is making all efforts to be seen as the ruling party’s principal opponent in the 2022 assembly election.
Congress general secretary in charge of UP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has been constantly seen as challenging the Yogi Adityanath government and trying to eat into the BJP’s votes. Be it the farmers, Dalits, women, Hindus and others, Priyanka is seen wooing them all.
Priyanka flagged off the Congress’s 10-day ‘Pratigya Yatra’ from Barabanki on October 23. She announced six promises of the Congress which it would fulfil if the party came to power.
The six promises announced by Priyanka are: 1) giving 40 per cent of the party tickets to women; smartphones and scooties to girl students; 2) waiver of farmers' loans; 3) minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2500 for paddy and wheat and Rs 400 for sugarcane; 4) halving of the electricity bills and waiving the bill of the Corona pandemic period; 5) each poor family to get Rs 25,000 to tide over the economic crisis due to Covid-19; and 6) government employment for 20 lakh people.

On Monday, the Congress leader added a seventh promise to the list.
In a tweet, she said: “Everyone saw the crumbled condition of UP’s health arrangements during Covid-19 times and the present fever which has spread due to the government's apathy. For cheap and effective treatment, the UP Congress, with the consent of the manifesto committee, has decided to provide free government treatment of up to Rs 10 lakh for any disease if the party comes to power. Congress's pledge - we will fulfil our promise.”

Priyanka's latest promise seeks to counter the Modi government's flagship healthcare mission. Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) is the largest health assurance scheme in the world which aims at providing a health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to over 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) that form the bottom 40 per cent of the Indian population.
In a coincidence or may be as a planned strategy, Priyanka’s promise over the healthcare sector came on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the state to inaugurate and launch ambitious projects in the same sector in two different programmes.
In the first event in Siddharth Nagar, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated nine medical colleges in the state. These nine medical colleges are in the districts of Siddharth Nagar, Etah, Hardoi, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Deoria, Ghazipur, Mirzapur and Jaunpur. Governor Anandiben Patel, chief minister Adityanath, Union health and family welfare minister Mansukh Mandaviya among others were present on the occasion.

In the second programme in his Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi, the prime minister launched PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission. He also inaugurated various development projects worth around Rs 5200 crore for Varanasi.
PM Modi tweeted: "A landmark day for India’s healthcare sector. Watch from Kashi."

In his speech, PM Modi lamented that in post-independent India, health infrastructure did not get the required attention for a very long time and citizens had to run from pillar to post for proper treatment, leading to worsening of the condition and financial strain.
He said: “This led to a persistent worry about medical treatment in the hearts of the middle class and poor people. Those whose governments remained in the country for a long time, instead of the all-around development of the country's healthcare system, kept it deprived of facilities.”
Modi said PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission aims to tackle this deficiency. The aim is to strengthen the critical healthcare network from village to block to the district to the regional and national level in the next four to five years, he said.
The PM said the speed with which new medical colleges are being opened in UP would have a great impact on the number of medical seats and doctors in the state. Due to more seats, now the children of poor parents will also be able to dream of becoming a doctor and fulfil it, he added.
Speaking about the past plight of the holy city of Kashi, the PM said the people were almost resigned to the pathetic state of affairs of the city’s infrastructure. Things changed and today the heart of Kashi is the same, the mind is the same, but sincere efforts are being made to improve the body. “The work done in Varanasi in the last 7 years was not done in the last several decades”, he said.