Nitish restarts Ayushman Bharat in Bihar. It has a new name
₹5 lakh to the families. Special campaigns and enrolment drives are being conducted in the state. As per the Union health ministry, the government had released ₹2415.34 crore for FY21, ₹1905.35 for FY22 and ₹3,717.81 crore for FY23 to Bihar.
However, as per officials, the funds mostly remained unutilized because new beneficiaries were not being enrolled. "For the PMJAY cards, the government is banking on the ration card dat- base. The families are being identified and the district officials are reaching out to them.
To ensure that more people are able to avail the AB-PMJAY we are involving ASHA and Anganwadi workers too. They will be paid ₹5 per enrollment in the scheme," said a senior official from the health ministry. In terms of the number of card-holders, the top three states are Uttar Pradesh (more than 50 million), Madhya Pradesh (40 million) and Maharashtra.
"Bihar had been lagging behind many states in terms of enrollment of beneficiaries under the scheme. But in just a few days in the month of March, the state has jumped up to fifth rank. The AB-PMJAY was announced in 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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