Bhubaneswar: Couple of days after the Odisha Government announced the ‘Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana’, Health & Family Welfare Minister Pratap Jena today said that Ayushman Bharat programme of the Central Government will not be implemented in the state.

Centre’s Ayushman Bharat programme was meant for 61 lakh families of Odisha while Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana covers 70 lakh families of the state, the minister said.

Keeping in view the interests of the people of our state, we are going to implement the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, Jena said, adding that the health care scheme of the state government is better than that of the Centre.

Notably, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had on Tuesday announced health assurance scheme that will benefit around 3.5 crore people from over 70 lakh families in the state.

Under this programme, a family would get up to Rs 5 lakh per annum to meet healthcare expenditure at all government-run hospitals and the entire cost would be borne by the state government. The scheme will come into effect from August 15 this year.