86% target achieved in health insurance coverage under BKKY in Odisha

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Oct 22:

In a significant achievement, Odisha has been able to cover more than 86% of the current year’s target of providing health insurance to 60 lakh farmer families under the Biju Krushak Kalyan Yojana (BKKY). A total of 51,68,434 families have been covered till date under the BKKY against the current year target of 60 lakh families in all the 30 districts of the state covered under three zones- Northern, Central and Southern.

This was revealed at a high level meeting held at the state secretariat here today, said an official release.

The release said the figure includes 23,10,649 families enrolled under Stream-I and 28, 57,785 families enrolled under Stream-II.

Up to 5 members of each enrolled family in both these categories are provided health insurance up to Rs one lakh (per family) per year. All the farmer families of the state are eligible for coverage under the scheme irrespective of their income level. The families registered under fishing and animal husbandry occupations have also been brought under its fold, the release stated.

The high level meeting was chaired by chief secretary G C Pati and the principal secretary Agriculture Rajesh Verma outlined the issues while the director Agriculture R S Gopalan presented the updates.

Pati advised the department to restart the process of enrolment within a month which had been stopped because of the enforecement of the model code of conduct following the announcement of the date for the Kandhamal Lok Sabha bypoll.

The department has also been asked to match the enrolment with NPR (National Population Register) to make the process more accurate and transparent.

It may be worth mentioning here that the insurance companies like National Insurance Company Ltd., New India Assurance Co Ltd., Reliance GIC, IFFCO Tokio GIC were selected through a competitive bidding process for enrolment.

Available data shows these companies have already settled 92% of the medical claims of the insured farmer families till September 30, 2014.

Development commissioner A P Padhi, additional chief secretary Finance U N Behera, secretary Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare and I & PR secretary Madhu Sudan Padhi, secretary Health & Family Welfare Arati Ahuja , Labor Commissioner Shalini Pandit, director NRHM Roopa Mishra along with other senior officers took part in the meeting.