Bommai faces heat on Maha health insurance scheme in K’taka

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai continued to face brickbats from Opposition parties Congress and JD(S) as Maharashtra State government passed a Government Resolution (GR) to extend the neighbouring state’s health insurance scheme to 865 villages in Karnataka.

Bommai claimed that villagers were being forced to sign declarations that say they belong to Maharashtra and asked the neighbouring state’s Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to abide by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s advice on the matter.

Bommai, Shinde and Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis had attended a meeting chaired by Shah and decided to deescalate tensions. However, Shinde has gone ahead and extended the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana to the villages in Belagavi, Karwar, Kalaburgai and Bidar districts. Congress claimed that Bommai hadn’t responded adequately to the issue.

“Maharashtra government’s order, to implement their health insurance scheme in 865 border villages of Karnataka, is obnoxious. This is despite opposition from Karnataka and we will not tolerate this. We demand them to immediately withdraw the notification. What is @ BSBommai doing about this? Why have not they not been able to oppose this move of Maharashtra despite BJP being party of the government? Is BJP scared of @ mieknathshinde?” Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Assembly Siddaramaiah tweeted.

JD(S) legislature party leader HD Kumaraswamy termed the move an attack on the federal structure of the state, adding that BJP despite being in power at the Centre and in both states had treated Karnataka “unjustly.” “It’s not just one or two matters.

Maharashtra has been irritating Karnataka on every issue. The decision to extend health insurance to 865 villages inside our state’s borders is a brazen attempt to destroy the state’s federal system,” he said.