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Karunya scheme' stays, to be subsumed, says Thomas Isaac

Isaac argued that any person who was part of the RSBY scheme should be eligible for the larger assistance.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance minister Dr T.M. Thomas Isaac termed as “baseless” reports that the LDF government was letting Karunya Benevolent Scheme die a natural death. Isaac said the LDF had fared better in the running of the scheme than the UDF, and added that the budgetary allocation for the Scheme would continue. Nonetheless, Isaac said that at a future date the Karunya scheme would be subsumed in a comprehensive health insurance scheme, the specifics of which are still in the preparatory stage. “Perhaps a smart card, like the one K.M. Mani had proposed, will be inevitable,” the minister told the media here on Friday.

Isaac argued that any person who was part of the RSBY scheme should be eligible for the larger assistance. “The UDF government had used the scheme as an opportunity to dole out patronage. We would transform the scheme from something granted as a favour to a rights-based one,” the minister said. The upper limit for RSBY assistance was Rs 30,000, considerably lesser than Karunya. The concern is whether fatal diseases would continue to get the larger assistance if Karunya is integrated into RSBY.

The minister said that in the ongoing fiscal till December 31, the LDF government had disbursed Rs 389 crore as assistance to 29,270 beneficiaries. “The government has sanctioned an additional Rs 100 crore for the scheme on February 9. What’s more, the Rs 250 crore allocated for the scheme in the Budget, too, has been handed over,” he added. He said that there was an additional claim of Rs 131 crore, which he said would be disbursed before March 31.

Isaac said that the issue of arrears was a problem bequeathed from the UDF dispensation. “The deficit in the Karunya account is not a new phenomenon,” Isaac said. It was nearly Rs 400 crore during the five years of the UDF tenure. The deficit is mainly for government hospitals. (For private hospitals, the arrear is only Rs 25 crore.) Absence of proper accounting in government hospitals, according to Isaac, is the reason for the delay in reimbursement. “We can transfer money only if we have a proper understanding of the manner in which the money is utilised,” Isaac said. Keltron had developed a software to process Karunya applications but since they were not paid, they had withdrawn the service. “The LDF government had already sought approval to clear the arrears of Keltron and also to upgrade the software,” the minister said.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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