November 26, 2020
Swasthya Sathi now for everyone in Bengal, announces the chief minister
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee set up a committee to celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Along with several well-known intellectuals, the committee also contains vice-chancellors of several universities.
Today’s announcements
The chairperson of the committee is Mamata Banerjee. The members of the committee are Nobel Prize winners Amartya Sen and Abhijit Banerjee, minister and actor-playwright Bratya Basu, Harvard University professor former Trinamool MP Sugata Bose, writer Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, poets Sankha Ghosh, Joy Goswami and Subodh Sarkar, actor-playwright Rudraprasad Sengupta, artists Jogen Chaudhuri and Shuvaprasanna, historian and Indologist Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, state Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay and other senior bureaucrats, and several others.
Every family in Bengal would be brought under the Swasthya Sathi health insurance scheme, which plan would start to be implemented from December 1 and for which a total of Rs 2,000 crore would be the cost to be borne by the state every year.
Highlights of her speech:
After we came to power, we took the initiative to rename Kolkata’s airport after Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Several programmes on Netaji would be run during the centenary year, which is January 23, 2021 to 2022. The aim of the programmes would be to spread the teachings, philosophy, revolutionary thoughts and patriotism all around. His slogan ‘Jai Hind’ binds the country together.
Our state is the first to form such a committee. I hope other states would also form similar committees.
We only know Netaji’s day of birth, not his day of death. Even today, his well-wishers, family and fans do not know when he died. The Central Government had said it would let us know, but it hasn’t.
A lot of information on Netaji remains unknown. The Centre hasn’t brought out all the information.
We have published whatever documents we had in our archives. We do what we say.
Now we are seeing a tendency to change history. Those who fought for our freedom are sought to be replaced by those who didn’t. a political colour is being given to everything.
About 7.5 crore people in Bengal are already covered by Swasthya Sathi. With the decision to cover all citizens in the state, the rest 2.5 crore too would be covered.
Those who are not yet covered by any heath insurance scheme would get Rs 5 crore as yearly insurance cover. To enable cashless transaction, every family would be issued a Swasthya Sathi Card.
The application for Swasthya Sathi can also be made during the Duare Sarkar programme. The card would be issued in the name of the woman guardian of the family, which would lead to women’s empowerment.
Besides all the government hospitals, people would be able to get treatment in about 1,500 private health institutions and in some of the premier ones outside the state like the one in Vellore, AIIMS, etc.
Swasthya Sathi, by ensuring treatment for everyone, would set an example for the whole world.
For the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, 60 per cent of the cost is borne by the Centre and the rest 40 per cent by the state, while for Swasthya Sathi, 100 per cent of the cost is borne by the state. Many more people are benefitted by Swasthya Sathi.
The Centre is more interested in big talk rather than real work. For the last six months to one year, I am hearing about the Centre’s plan to give vaccines.
Ask the Centre, why is potato so costly? Why aren’t you taking the responsibility to reduce the price? Why is the price of onion prohibitive? Staple vegetable like potatoes and onion are getting out of the range of people’s buying capacity. What would one eat?
To those who are thinking they would be in the news only by doing politics, who want to just show up and not do any real work for the state, to them I say, there is absolutely no place for outsiders in the state. Never, never, never.
On the other hand, those who have come from other states and have made themselves residents here, they are our own people. But those who come to the state to bully and fight and riot, they are outsiders, who are not welcome.
The Majerhat Bridge could have been completed nine months back; only the Railways’ denying permission has held back the completion of the project. The full permission of the Railways has still not been received. That would take another seven to eight days. Therefore, the delay in completion is because of the Central government’s lackadaisical attitude, not ours. The BJP just wants to do politics. What could have been completed a year back, is being held back to harass people.
For anganwadi (part of ICDS) and ASHA workers, the previously announced salary increment would be effective from December. Therefore, from January next year, they would get Rs 1,000 more every month.
