On Friday, T Harish Rao, the finance minister for Telangana, claimed that Nirmala Sitharaman, the minister of finance for the Union, had only made false statements regarding the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
Sitharaman claimed on Thursday that Telangana refused to join Ayushman Bharat, the central government’s national public health insurance programme, since doing so would expose the ‘truth’ to the public. ‘If you can show that Telangana did not join Ayushman Bharat, I will quit right now.’ Harish Rao stated.
Harish Rao added that the Telangana government’s Aarogyasri scheme is far superior to Ayushman Bharat. Telangana Minister noted that the KCR government spent Rs 859 crore on the Aarogyasri initiative whereas the Center only allocated Rs 150 crore for Ayushman Bharat for the fiscal year 2021–2022.
Then Harish Rao has produced a record of the exchange that took place in the February 2022 session of the parliament, in which Uttam Kumar Reddy asked the Union health minister if Telangana was a participant in the Ayushman Bharat programme.
The state has been a part of Ayushman Bharat since April 2021, according to the union government’s response. He questioned, “Which union minister is to be believed?
