ALLAHABAD: Officials of district health department on Thursday speed up the distribution of SMART cards for BPL families. In fact, the exercise has been initially taken to Kaurihar and Holagarh blocks under the first phase and the department aims to complete the exercise within two months in the district.

A total of 3.44 lakh BPL ( below poverty line) families including 23,643 in Bahadurpur, 26,111 in Bahria, 10,943 in Chaka, 17,136 in Dhanupur, 19,767 in Handia, 10,259 in Holagarh, 12,085 in Jasra, 16,677 in Karchana, 17,250 in Kaudhiyara, 28,361 in Kaurihar, 30,102 in Koraon, 12,085 in Manda, 12,157 in Mauaima, 17,814 in Meja, 16,912 in Phulpur, 19,554 in Pratappur, 16,302 in Saidabad, 9,842 in Shankargarh, 10,179 in Soraon and 16,856 in Urwan blocks of the district would be given SMART CARD under the Rastriya Swastha Vima Yojna (RSVY)).

Chief Medical Officer, Dr Padmakar Singh said " the scheme is meant to offer health insurance cover to the families living under BPL (below poverty line) and labourers working in unorganized sectors in both rural and urban areas".

He added " any beneficiary, who is living far from his native town, will be given a separate SMART CARD and he or she and his\her family can also avail the services of RSVY from duo places".

A total of 41 districts of the state including Allahabad have been selected under the scheme and SMART CARD would be given to the beneficiaries. The validity of the card will be for one year from the issued date.

Deputy CMO, Dr. Vivek Srivastava told TOI " under the RSVY scheme, ground health workers, known as ASHAs and ANMs, have been assisting insurance company officers for the distribution of SMART cards . He added that the exercise would be taken in all 20 primary and community health centers and officials are working to get in completed at the earliest.

Under the scheme, the beneficiaries (insured families) would be able to get an insurance cover ( Rs 30,000) annually and a smart card by the insurance company, having detailed information of as many as members of the family, their thump impression and photos.

Dr Srivastava, meanwhile, maintained that best hospitals having upgraded medical facilities have been selected for empanelment. He maintained that the insurance company may provide some relief to the hospitals according to their wants.

On the time of availing facility, a smart card holder can approach the enlisted hospital to get the benefit of the scheme. The person would first have to show his smart card and he would have to be admitted to the hospital. The hospital authorities would offer him all sorts of facilities including transportation.