State sponsored health insurance scheme to help senior citizens

KOLKATA: When Arati Deb, a nonagenarian and a resident of Briji (Garia station Road) queued up at Patuli Mela Ground on Thursday afternoon to register for the Swasthya Sathi scheme, the infirm woman was behind hundreds of applicants.

She was later spotted by Trinamool Congress MP Mimi Chakraborty and local KMC ward coordinator Arup Chakraborty. The duo escorted her to the camp office and did the needful for her registration.

Hundreds of senior citizens and elderly people are every day queuing up in front of Kolkata Municipal Corporation run Swasthya Sathi camp to enroll for the state sponsored health insurance scheme that will enable an elderly citizen and other members of her family to get treatment worth Rs 5 lakh annually at listed private hospitals.

Following an instruction from chief minister Mamata Banerjee who wants more Swasthya Sathi camps be held across the city for the benefit of elderly citizens besides reaching out to them at the doorstep, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation brass on Thursday instructed the civic officials in the borough level to open a special cell at each borough for the Swasthya Sathi applicants. Municipal commissioner Binod Kumar on Thursday held a meeting with senior civic officials in this regard and passed on necessary information about such an initiative. This apart, all KMC ward coordinators will need to hold several camps at their ward level.

Source: The Times of India