Y S R Congress Party chief and Andhra Pradesh Assembly Opposition leader Y S Jaganmohan Reddy wrote an open letter to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday, blaming the latter for the weakening of the Arogyasri scheme, and the plight of healthcare that ensued from it in the State.
In the letter, Reddy stated that people were being forced to sell their lands in order to pay for health and education due to Arogyasri lacking funds and implementation.
He sought to know whether welfare programs including Aarogyasri were being "diluted" intentionally or had weakened due to the "incompetence" of the government.
The scheme was introduced by ex-CM Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, and was re-christened to "NTR Aarogya Seva" after Naidu assumed Office, he pointed out, and said that the AP government had allocated only Rs. 529.23 crores for the health scheme, even though experts estimated the required budget at Rs. 910.77 crores. When the budget was presented in March, the mounting liabilities under the scheme had risen to Rs. 395.69 crores, he said.
The YSRCP chief also asked the CM to look into the problems being faced by heart patients, cancer, multiple fractures and kidney patients under the scheme.
Several hospitals were refusing treatment to patients enrolled in the scheme as the former didn't receive any payments for the past nine months, he claimed.
The YSRCP supremo demanded that the State government immediately address the increasing concerns about the health scheme, else the Party would protest outside the District Collectorates on December 9.