Oppn walkout Health Ins scheme

Thiruvananthapuram, Sept 20: The Congress-led Opposition staged a walkout in the Kerala Assembly today accusing the government of sabotaging the health insurance scheme for people below the poverty line initiated by the previous UDF government.

The walkout came when Local Administration Minister Paloli Mohammedkutty finished his reply to a submission by Mr K C Venugopal (Cong) on the issue.

The Minister said the scheme in its present form did not have the approval of the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) because of the involvement of private insurance companies.

The government had not dropped the scheme and was trying to recast it on the guidelines of the IRA thereby bringing more people under its purview, he said.

However, Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy said the Centre had amended the norms governing the scheme permitting involvement of private insurance companies also and the matter had been conveyed to the State Government. The government was trying to mislead the people by concealing the facts, he said and added that its stand on the scheme could not be justified.

UNI