New Delhi:
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has told the Delhi High Court that it did not implement the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat Yojana for medical insurance because the capital’s residents enjoy “superior” benefits under the Delhi government’s schemes. Implementing the Centre’s scheme would downgrade the health schemes currently in force in Delhi, the capital’s Health and Family Welfare Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said in an affidavit.
The AAP minister was responding to a petition by seven BJP MPs, seeking the implementation of the central scheme. In his response, he has said that the petition, “ostensibly filed as a public interest litigation, is nothing else but a politically motivated petition, filed in view of the ensuing elections to the legislative assembly of Delhi”.
“The petitioners are political persons, who belong to the principal opposition party in Delhi. The said political party has been trying to impose its wishes on Delhi, even though they were able to win only 10% of the seats in the last election to the legislative assembly,” the affidavit said.
The Delhi minister said the petition sings “unnecessary praises” of the Centre’s scheme but does not mention the policies currently in force in Delhi. “The omission is deliberate in as much as had any such comparison been done between the scheme of the Central Government and the various schemes already being implemented by the Delhi Government, it would have been evident that the schemes of the Delhi Government are far superior to the scheme of the Central Government,” he said.
He added that if the schemes in place in the capital are substituted by the Centre’s scheme, “it will be a loss for the residents of Delhi”.
Stressing that policymaking is the exclusive domain of the Delhi government, the minister said it is settled law that no court will enter the domain of framing of policy.
“AB-PMJAY scheme is unsuitable for meeting the requirements of the people of Delhi. The said scheme has been framed by the Central Government based upon the material and data available with them. The AB-PMJAY scheme is based upon the estimation of the Central Government. However, in a federal structure in India, it is not mandatory for every political unit to follow the policy of the Central Government, particularly when the schemes and the policies already in operation and functioning in the city of Delhi are far superior to the AB-PMJAY scheme,” the affidavit said.
The Delhi government has said that the Centre had used 2011 Census data for the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Calling it “old and archaic”, he said the scheme does not take into consideration the evolving
circumstances of the society. “The old and archaic data would not be able to encompass the benefit, which would actually need to be provided to the people of Delhi. This assumes great importance in view of the fact that there are various limiting factors in the scheme framed by the Central Government, which if applied along with the 2011 data will render many people ineligible for benefits under the scheme, even though they are being provided free medical services under the schemes formulated by the Delhi Government.”
“Any scheme which is based upon an outdated data can by no stretch of imagination be thrust down the throat of any other government or for that matter people,” the affidavit added.
Hitting back at the AAP government, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said there is no willingness on the part of the Delhi government to implement the central scheme. She clarified that the Centre’s scheme was not to substitute the state government’s initiatives but to support it.
