595 Bihar villages deprived of Ayushman Bharat benefits: CAG

595 Bihar villages deprived of Ayushman Bharat benefits: CAG

Patna, The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has highlighted irregularities in the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana in Bihar, saying at least 595 villages in the state were deprived of the scheme's intended benefits.

595 Bihar villages deprived of Ayushman Bharat benefits: CAG

CAG's report on the implementation of the PMJAY, tabled in the Assembly on Thursday, highlighted the irregularities in the implementation of the scheme.

"The PMJAY scheme aimed to provide health cover to all the targeted 1.21 crore beneficiary families of the state. Audit noted that data in respect of villages where no Ayushman Cards had been issued was not available on pmjay.gov portal, and the updated status in this regard was also not provided by Bihar Swasthya Suraksha Samiti to audit," the report stated.

"However, the audit examined the data available in the 'Village Penetration Dashboard' of 'Insights-PMJAY' portal. As per data available on this portal, audit noticed that out of the total 44,559 villages in the state, there were 595 such villages , which although had eligible PMJAY beneficiaries, no Ayushman Cards had been issued to them", it added.

As a result, there were no Ayushman Card holders in these 595 villages... Thus, targeted beneficiaries under these 595 villages were deprived of the intended benefits of the scheme, which was indicative of poor Information Education Communication activities and monitoring mechanism under the scheme, it said.

The Beneficiary Empowerment Guidebook for the scheme provided that "authorities concerned should ensure that beneficiaries have access to accurate, complete and timely information", so that they could fully avail of their rightful entitlements under the scheme, it said.

The PMJAY is a centrally sponsored scheme, which is funded by the government, and the funding is shared between the Centre and state governments. It provides health coverage up to ₹5 lakh per family per year.

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