BHUBANESWAR: In the run-up to the 2024 elections, the Naveen Patnaik government on Friday expanded the ambit of its flagship
free health coverage scheme
,
Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana
, to all
rural families
in Odisha, except those having
income tax payees
and regular
government employees
.
The scheme, launched in August 2018, currently covers 96 lakh families that have ration cards.
The expanded coverage will include 14 lakh more families who don’t have ration cards. This will take the total number of beneficiaries to 1.1 crore or one-fourth of Odisha’s 4.8 crore population.