Overview
- Modi, in a Monday victory address in Delhi, said the first cabinet meeting will clear the Centre’s health plan for West Bengal.
- He also said stronger steps against illegal immigration will come soon.
- Ayushman Bharat offers cashless hospital care worth Rs 5 lakh per family each year with automatic cover for everyone aged 70 and above, and its costs are shared by the Centre and the state.
- The scheme would cover about 1.24 crore of the poorest in West Bengal plus 15.9 lakh residents aged 70 and above, with roughly 3 lakh ASHA and Anganwadi workers included, according to national health authority data.
- Rollout still needs cabinet approval and state-level integration after years of holdout by the previous government, which left the programme in 2019 even as 35 other states and Union Territories adopted it.