South Dinajpur district administration hands over health cards

BALURGHAT: South Dinajpur district administration started distributing health cards to the beneficiaries who are under Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) scheme on Friday.

District magistrate Nikhil Nirmal said: "We have started distributing the health cards to the beneficiaries under RSBY project undertaken by the state government. Any individual under the particular scheme will get cashless benefit up to Rs 5,00,000 through the health card."

According to an official source, five beneficiaries received health cards on Friday from the concerned DM in a programme at district administrative building. Around 100 cards have been prepared for beneficiaries. The department has targeted to handover approximately 1,00,000 cards within next 100 days.

"The cardholders will immensely be benefitted under the health scheme. The poor and backward people who have financial compulsions and do not have the capacity to bear the costly medical expenses can take advantage through it. Soon, we will start distributing the cards at the block level. The entire process will be completed within upcoming 150 days positively," Nirmal said.

Apart from DM, additional district magistrate, Pranab Kumar Ghosh, Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH), Dr Sukumar Dey and many dignitaries and officials attended the programme.

Notably, the cardholders will receive pamphlet with the details of the scheme and the list of hospitals.

The health scheme is for the poor. It aims to provide insurance coverage to the unorganised sector workers under the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category and their family members.