Bhubaneswar: Odisha will not join the Centre-sponsored Ayushman Bharat Yojana on the ground that its 'Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana' was a "better" health care programme.

Odisha's health minister Pratap Jena on Thursday said the proposed central scheme would cover 61 lakh families in Odisha, but, the state project, announced by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday, benefits nearly 70 lakh families.

While the central scheme extends health insurance coverage up to Rs 5 lakh per family per annum, the state government will provide Rs 5 lakh worth free treatment and medicines to the beneficiaries in all government hospitals. The centre is yet to announce the date of the implementation of its scheme. By launching its own programme, which will be funded by the state's resources, the BJD government is trying to rebuff the allegations of the BJP that the state only hijacks central schemes and appropriated credit for their implementation.

In fact, the BJP has currently launched a poster war across the state staking its claim to various programmes being implemented in the state, including the Naveen Patnaik government's most successful scheme to provide Re 1 rice per kilo per person.

As the general and Assembly elections, scheduled to be held in 2019, approaches, the two parties are becoming increasingly assertive. Aware that the NDA government's Ujjwala scheme (free gas connections to rural poor) is gaining popularity, the Naveen Patnaik government has upstaged the BJP government's move by announcing its own health scheme before the central could come up with its own.

BJD leaders feel that the health scheme would certainly help bolster the party's image among the electorate.

The central and the state health schemes have more or less similar features. The two are aimed at providing cashless heath care facilities to the beneficiaries.

Ayushman Bharat Yojana or National Health Protection Scheme aims to create a network of health and wellness infrastructure across the nation to deliver comprehensive primary health care services, and also provide insurance cover to at least 40 per cent of India's population that is deprived of secondary and tertiary care services

However, Jena asserted that the state's plan was not to provide "health insurance", but "health assurance". People would be given free diagnostic, free treatment and free medicines in all the government hospitals.

Under the scheme, a person visiting government health institutions from the district to the sub-centre level will be provided all health services free of cost. Besides, Rs 500 will be provided to all pregnant women as well as infants undergoing treatment at government hospitals to meet pick-up and drop expenses.

BJP spokesperson Golak Mohapatra, however, accused the state government of acting in "copy-paste-edit" format and alleged that it had simply changed the nomenclature of the Centre's "Ayushman Bharat" scheme with the 'Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana".