The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court against the Aam Aadmi Party government for not implementing the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the national capital, The Hindu reported.

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, which is the health insurance programme under Ayushman Bharat, was launched in 2018. It provides health insurance coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh to poor families. West Bengal, Odisha and Delhi have not adopted the scheme.

The petition filed in the High Court was signed by all seven BJP Lok Sabha MPs from the national capital. BJP’s Delhi unit chief Virendra Sachdeva claimed that the scheme was not being implemented “purely for political reasons”, according to The Hindu.

The non-implementation of the scheme had resulted in the denial of health care to the elderly and the poor, he added.

The petition came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the health insurance scheme to include senior citizens aged 70 years and above. He also criticised the Delhi and West Bengal governments for not implementing the scheme due to “political” interests.

“I apologise to all the elderly aged above 70 years of Delhi and West Bengal that I cannot serve them,” Modi said on Tuesday. “I would get to know about your pains and sufferings but I won’t be able to help you.”

In response, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal called the Ayushman Bharat a “major scam”, The Hindu reported.

He added that there was no need to implement the scheme in the national capital as the Aam Aadmi Party government provides free treatment up to Rs 1 crore to residents.

“Every resident of Delhi, whether they have a simple cold or need hospitalisation, receives treatment, medication, and tests free of charge – no limits, no caps,” Kejriwal said. “In Delhi, whether it’s a five-rupee tablet or a treatment costing Rs 1 crore, everything is provided free of charge.”

Citing a performance audit undertaken by the Comptroller and Auditor General of the Ayushman Bhara scheme in 2023, the Aam Aadmi Party chief claimed that it was riddled with scams.

As per the audit report, nearly 7.5 lakh beneficiaries of the Ayushman Bharat scheme were registered under a single cellphone number – 9999999999. The report noted that mobile numbers were important as those availing of the scheme could use them if they lost their identification cards.

The report also flagged that in thousands of cases, beneficiaries of the scheme had been shown to have unusually large families. Additionally, as many as 2,103 beneficiaries of the National Social Assistance Program were given pensions between 2017 and 2021 even after they had died, it added.

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