Over 1 L cable operators to come under Swasthya Sathi from July 1

Kolkata: The process of bringing more than 1 lakh cable TV operators under the state government's Swasthya Sathi Scheme will start from July 1.

It was on April 20 that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced that the people working for the cable television operators will be incorporated under the Swasthya Sathi Scheme. She had made the announcement while addressing the Cable TV Summit 2018, organised by Cable TV Equipments Traders and Manufacturing Association at Netaji Indoor Stadium.

She had also set up cable TV network advisory committee to resolve long-standing issues faced by the operators. Firhad Hakim, the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister, is the chairman of the committee. The first meeting of the committee was held in Nabanna on Wednesday. Besides Hakim, Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, Youth Services and Sports minister Aroop Biswas, minister of state for Information and Cultural Affairs Indranil Sen and minister of state for Health and Family Welfare department Chandrima Bhattacharya, were present in the meeting.

The matters related to initiation of Swasthya Sathi Scheme for the people involved in the sector, have been discussed with multiple system operators (MSOs) and some cable TV operators. The forms will start getting distributed from Saturday onwards and the state government will initiate collection of the filled up forms from July 1.

Initially, the forms will be distributed through the MSOs. In Kolkata, forms can be submitted at the office of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nandan, while in the districts, one can submit the same at the respective District Information and Cultural Offices.

A review meeting will also be held in this connection in the next few days and necessary steps will be taken if people face any problem in submitting their applications.

Under the scheme, one gets a basic health coverage of Rs 1.5 lakh per year and in case a person suffers from diseases like cancer, liver disease, blood disorders or need to undergo neuro surgery or cardio-thoracic surgery, the coverage will go up to Rs 5 lakh.

It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister has also stated that the cable TV employees would also get themselves enrolled under the Samajik Suraksha Yojana (SSY).