New social security platform for BPL families from April

Government will come up with a social security platform for below poverty line families from April next, Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said today.
The idea is to transfer all the government benefits, which include the proposed cashless hospitalisation for the below-poverty line (BPL) families, on a single platform.
"We are coming up with a social security platform that will be announced on April 1, 2017. The platform will be meant for transferring all the government benefits, which comprise a proposed health insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh for BPL families," he said at an event here.

In the last Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed to launch a new health protection scheme, which would provide cover of up to Rs 1 lakh to each BPL family and cover serious illnesses.
Talking about the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana launched in January, Sinha said, "Under the scheme, we aim at providing cover to crops of all farmers at a premium of as low as 1.5-2 per cent of the cover."
The minister also talked about the insurance schemes already launched under Jan-Dhan Yojana, which include Pradhan Mantri Jiwan Jyoti Yojana (a life cover) and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (a personal accident cover).