Centre apathetic to cancer patients, PMO denied help to a child: Jakhar

GURDASPUR: Punjab Congress president and Gurdaspur MP Sunil Jakhar on Wednesday slammed the central government for being apathetic towards cancer patients in the state.

In a statement issued here, Jakhar said Narendra Modi-led government has no funds to provide financial help to poor cancer patients even as his government is claiming to have provided health insurance to 50 crore people in the country.

Referring to a child patient from his constituency, the MP said he wrote a letter to the PM’S Office to provide him financial help for treatment of cancer from the Prime Minister Relief Fund but was refused the same in a reply.

Jakhar said while on the one hand, Modi is claiming that his government is launching the National Health Insurance Scheme as part of which ₹5 lakh medical assistance will be provided for the treatment of every patient, the same dispensation is denying assistance to a poor cancer patient due to shortage of funds.

He said this exposes the double standards of the Bjp-led government at the Centre.

He said the central government is busy making false promises and is proving to be a failure on all fronts.

He said the Centre is going to increase the burden on the state governments through the Health Insurance Scheme.

Jakhar said in fact it was the Congress government led by Manmohan Singh which had implemented the National Health Insurance Scheme in the country and its benefits also reached millions of the people.