Port Blair, July 16: Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma, Member of Parliament, A&N Islands has taken up the matter with Mr. Amit Shah, the Home Minister of India requesting him to consider for resumption of Health Insurance Scheme of ANISHI (Andaman & Nicobar Islands Scheme for Health Insurance) for the treatment of poor Islanders till such time proper medical treatment facilities for all the diseases are created in A&N Islands.
He informed that a scheme namely “Andaman & Nicobar Islands Scheme for Health Insurance (ANISHI) was introduced in these Islands since 2015 for treatment of patients suffering from serious disease at mainland as referred by the GB Pant Hospital which was stopped on 31st March, 2020 on launching of Ayushman Bharat Scheme. However, the ANISHI scheme has been extended upto 30th June, 2020.
In this regard he said that in A&N Islands majority of the peoples are poor but their names does not exist in the BPL category list (now PHH) and due to non availability of their names in the beneficiaries list prepared based on Socio Economic Cast Census Survey 2011, these poor families names are not enlisted in the Ayushman Bharat Health Scheme. In this circumstance, these poor persons are unable to get the health care facilities under Ayushman Bharat Scheme. As such, he requested Home Minister that until proper medical treatment facilities for all the serious diseases are created in the Hospitals in A&N Islands, the ANISHI scheme may be continued on special consideration for getting treatment at empanelled hospitals at Chennai and Kolkatta under ANISHI scheme.