New Delhi : Leader of Opposition and BJP MLA Vijender Gupta on Thursday met Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal to urge him to prevail upon the Delhi government not to deny the benefits of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Arogya Yojna to the citizens.

Gupta, along with other Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs O.P. Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan, also wrote a letter to Baijal demanding the same.

“We would like to draw your kind attention to the fact that whereas around 1.25 lakh patients all over India have sought complex tertiary care procedures in the last two months under the Central government’s flagship health scheme, the Delhi government has persistently refused to be its part, thereby depriving benefits of the scheme to more than 20 lakh poor and vulnerable citizens who have hardly any access to medical facilities including hospitalisation”, they wrote.

Gupta said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, out of political “ill-will”, is denying the benefits to the poor.

“Most of the states and Union Territories have adopted the scheme, but AAP government’s insistence on certain unreasonable changes sound politically motivated… There is no logic in depriving the poor people of the benefit of the scheme. We seek your kind intervention in the matter and request you to advise Delhi government to adopt the scheme.”

The Centre’s health scheme was launched in September across the nation.

The MLAs also urged Baijal to restart and strengthen the Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) scheme to strengthen the ration system in Delhi.

“It can be built on the pattern of a similar scheme in Haryana and on the basis of the terms and conditions signed a deal with a company named BEL. When the process for identifying fake ration cards started in accordance with the scheme, all of a sudden in November 2017, Kejriwal started talking about cancellation of this scheme and for adopting Door Step Delivery system,” Gupta told the media.

Gupta added that in December 2017, referring to some complaints, Delhi’s Food Minister issued instructions to ban the E-PoS scheme. It must now be fully restored.

—IANS