*Representational image

At a time when the state administration is busy organizing the International Yoga Day on June 21 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will grace the event, the PM Modi's prime scheme Ayushman Bharat is causing pain, suffering and death to patients.

Under this health insurance scheme, the beneficiary who was registered and had its card was entitled to get treatment in a registered hospital. The patient was supposed to get treatment with medicines worth Rs five lakh free of cost.

However, with these cards in hands, two patients had died and another one is suffering untold miseries. Why? Due to lack of medicines at the state government-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi.

Consider these facts.

On Wednesday, Jamshedpur based Jitu Bag(50) had died. His wife Bimla informed that suffering from a liver ailment, Nag was admitted at RIMS on June 8. Soon, doctors sought medicines and as per this hospital's procedure sent medicine demand to concerned officials. This demand file was returned stating 'medicine not available.' Bag died.

Similarly, another Ayushman Bharat beneficiary Arun Kumar Mahto(39), a resident of Tatijharia, Hazaribagh, was admitted at ICU(Medicine) on May 25. For 12 days, he remained in the ICU without getting medicines and as such, he died on June 7.

Another Ayushman Bharat beneficiary Baikunth Rana whose kidney is damaged and as such has to undergo dialysis is lying at the Medicine ward of the RIMS. He was admitted on June 8. Though ward doctors had sent demand list of medicines needed for him the next day. The medicines were not provided till date.

Why medicines were not provided to these beneficiaries? An inquiry revealed that in the RIMS files connected with these patients, three words were mentioned in each of these cases-"Medicines not available."

RIMS Director Dr Dinesh Kumar Singh  says that the ward/department head was authorized to purchase the medicines."There is a problem we are trying to solve", he said. When contacted each head of the department observed that the RIMS management was responsible to procure the medicines.

A senior health department official said that the RIMS was short of funds to procure medicines."This has caused the death and suffering to beneficiaries", he said. In any case, the death of these patients has raised fingers on the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the BJP ruled Jharkhand where the CM Raghubar Das failed to make any effort to prevent their death and provide relief to their family members. 

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