Rourkela: More than 4,000 beneficiaries of Janani Surakhya Yojana (JSY) have been deprived of their benefits, thanks to a defective ID of Mother and Child Tracking (MCT) system at the Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH), a report said.
Though this has been continuing for the last three years, hospital authorities don’t bother to help out the poor women who badly need money after childbirth, alleged some beneficiaries, adding, they have been running from one office to another to get the money, but to no avail.
When contacted, department officials, ASHAs and ANMs were found blaming each other over the issue, leaving the poor women in the lurch. While a woman of a rural area is given Rs 1,400 after delivery, her counterpart in urban areas gets Rs 1,000 under JSY. According to reports, RGH registers at least 15 delivery cases a day and half of them don’t get the assistance available under JSY.
In last three years, over 4,000 women of Gurundia, Lahunipada, Bonai, Bishra, Kanshabahal, Birkera, Khuntagaon, Lathikata, Nuagaon, Kuanrmunda, Bandhamunda and Fertilizer Township have been deprived of their benefits offered by the government.
Madhuri Baghua of Tunguritola here and Anjana Tanti of Gambharidihi of Lahunipada area had their deliveries about eight months and one and half years back in the hospital, respectively. But they are yet to get their dues and often made to run several offices on various pretexts, the duo alleged.
When contacted, the hospital staff put the blame on ASHA workers. “It is wrong to blame us for the mess. The officials should make sure the mistakes don’t repeat in future,” ASHA workers Rina Bhumija and Shakuntala Mahakud said in their defence.
RGH manager RK Mohapatra said none of the beneficiaries has any due with the hospital. However, banks refuse to credit the amount in the accounts of some of them due to wrong ID number, he added. PNN
