In Parliament: Spend more on health infrastructure, states told

New Delhi: Health Minister JP Nadda on Monday asked states to spend more on improving healthcare infrastructure. Kerala Congress and Left parties MPs staged a walkout during his speech in the Lok Sabha, protesting against the poor allocation of funds in the Union Budget for healthcare for their state. Nadda, who was replying in the Lower House to a debate on the demand for grants for the Health Ministry, also dismissed the allegations of the opposition that allotment of funds under the Ayushman Scheme had been reduced. The Health Minister dared Trinamool Congress members, who were protesting during his speech, to tell the House why the West Bengal Government did not share the dengue registry with the Centre. On opposition claims on reduction of funds for the health infrastructure mission, the Health Minister said states were able to spend just ~1,806 crore out of the budgetary allocation of ~4,200 crore in last year’s budget. “We are giving money, but it is not spent. You spend the money, we will allocate more funds, if the existing funds are spent,” Nadda said. — TNS

Govt urged to slash GST on health insurance

New Delhi: TMC MP Derek O’Brien on Monday urged the government to reduce 18 per cent GST on medical and health insurance, saying the high tax rate is burdening the middle class. During the Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha, he referred to a letter written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari making similar demands. “We should reduce the GST because this is burdening people, especially the middle class. Insurance penetration in India in below 4 per cent as compared to over 7 per cent globally. There is an imbalance in the insurance sector where 75 per cent is life insurance policies and 25 per cent medical insurance,” Derek said. He said the TMC had raised the issue in the Parliament on July 29 and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee also wrote to the Finance Minister in this regard. Sitharaman had earlier faced similar demands to reassess the GST rate on health insurance premiums. — TNS

Digi Yatra ‘purely voluntary’: Minister

New Delhi: Stating that Digi Yatra is “purely voluntary” for air passengers, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu has claimed that wide publicity had been given to inform people that Digi Yatra was one of the options for passengers and they need not necessarily go for it. Naidu stated this in the Rajya Sabha on Monday in response to a question by Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Jawahar Sircar. Sircar asked while Digi Yatra mode was said to be “optional”, why air passengers were not informed about it well in advance by sending them text messages? Sircar also wanted to know about the owner of the Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF), which uses the facial recognition technology (FRT) for verification of flyers. The TMC MP also asked about the agency that controlled the facial recognition data collected through Digi Yatra. — TNS