KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced the decision to opt out of the Centre's 'Modicare' scheme, making the state the first one to withdraw out of the ambitious programme. A news report quoted Banerjee as saying, “The Centre has drawn up a health plan in which 40 per cent of the fund has to come from states. But why should the state spend on another programme when it already has its own? A state will have its own scheme if it has the resources.” The Bengal government had already enrolled 50 Lakh people under its own Swasthya Sathi programme, when Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) on February 1.
“We have done it even after the Centre takes away Rs 48,000 Crore a year for debt-servicing the loan liability left behind by the preceding CPM government,” Banerjee said. The CM's discontent with the central scheme is no secret. Just a day after the Budget was announced, she had said that the health scheme was only on paper. Many other leaders have also been skeptical about the scheme. Leader of the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O'Brien had criticised the annual budget as “super flop show, big bluff show”, pointing out that the West Bengal government already follows what Jaitley proposed to do in 2018-19.
