Jagan relaunches his father YSR's Arogyasri scheme, now with cancer care

Visakhapatnam: AP CM Jagan Mohan Reddy launches pilot programme of Arogyasri, which would cover 1,000 more conditions including all cancer ailments.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the pilot project of Arogyasri in Visakhapatnam on January 3 and later released the Quick Response code (QR) cards. Speaking at the venue, the CM said that the state government has brought “revolutionary changes” in the Arogyasri programme.

Jagan noted that they had extended Arogyasri to cover 2,059 diseases from the previous 1,059 conditions and it would apply to all medical bills that exceed Rs 1,000. The updated Arogyasri will cover all cancer ailments from February 1 onwards, apart from chikungunya, sunstroke, malaria, and typhoid. It is the second governmental programme in 2020, the first being the APSRTC’s merger with the state, benefitting 51,000 employees.

The Chief Minister said that, as promised before elections, the scheme would apply to all families whose annual income is below Rs 5 lakh. The government would issue about 1.42 crore cards, and all of them would have a QR code containing details of the scheme. The government has entrusted Village Secretariats with the responsibility of issuing the cards.

The programme attaches each Asha worker to 300-350 houses, and they are attached to Village Secretariats. Since November 1, 2019, the scheme has brought under its purview over 150 super-speciality hospitals in Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru, and it provides financial assistance since December 2, 2019. The programme offers Rs 225 per day or Rs 5,000 for post-surgery care.

Recalling seeing deaf children during his padayatra, Jagan said that operation to restore function to one ear would cost Rs 6 lakh. “However, now we are getting both ears operated for Rs 9 lakh.”

From January 1, the government has been ensuring that all government hospitals in the state are equipped with 510 varieties of medicines of high quality and that all hospitals maintain WHO standards. Patients who are on dialysis every month are being given a pension of Rs 10,000, and it would extend to Thalassemia, Haemophilia and Sickle Cell patients from February 1.

A pension of Rs 5,000 would also be provided to patients of Elephantiasis, paralysis and those suffering from muscular dysfunction. Leprosy patients would get a pension of Rs 3,000 from February 1. Sanitary workers in hospitals used to get a salary of Rs 8,000, which would increase to Rs 16,000 and all 5,000 primary health centres in the state would be upgraded.

The government would take up YSR Kanti Velugu programme from February 1 for six months, which would include eye tests, operations and provision of spectacles. The state would establish research centres at Palasa and Markapur for the benefit of kidney patients, and the work would begin at centres in a month.

Sincere efforts are being made to set up medical colleges in Markapur, Piduguralla, Machilipatnam, Paderu, Vizianagaram, Eluru and Pulivendula for which tenders would be called for in six weeks. The Chief Minister said that the government is making all-out efforts to see that these programmes reach all sections of people.