AAP questions Centre over discrepancies in Ayushman Bharat data by CAG

Questioning the Centre over the discrepancies in the database of the Ayushman Bharat scheme by the Comptroller and Auditor General, the AAP on Friday asked whether the government will initiate any probe into it.

"The Centre formed the AB-PMJAY scheme to carry out a scam. But there won't be any investigation," chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said addressing a press conference.

"The CAG report has highlighted irregularities. I want to ask whether a probe will be ordered in this," she said.

"The health scheme of Delhi government that has no restrictions should be implemented across the country," she added.

The CAG has highlighted discrepancies including invalid names, unrealistic dates of birth, duplicate health IDs and unrealistic family sizes in the database of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

Ineligible households were found registered as PMJAY beneficiaries and had availed the benefits ranging between Rs 0.12 lakh to Rs 22.44 crore under the scheme, said the audit report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

"According to National Health Authority (NHA) records, 7.87 crore beneficiary households were registered, constituting 73 per cent of the targeted households of 10.74 crore (November 2022).

"In the absence of adequate validation controls, errors were noticed in beneficiary database i.e. invalid names, unrealistic date of birth, duplicate PMJAY IDs, unrealistic size of family members in a household etc," the report said.

The CAG report pointed out that several beneficiaries were registered against the same mobile number under the health insurance scheme. It stated that 7.49 lakh people are registered against the mobile number 9999999999 as beneficiaries.

Health Ministry sources on Wednesday said there is no role of mobile number in the verification process. "The mobile number is captured only for the sake of reaching out to the beneficiaries in case of any need and for collecting feedback regarding the treatment provided," an official source said.