NT NETWORK
PANAJI
The government in commemoration of the 29th anniversary of the Goa Statehood Day will launch on May 30 its ambitious flagship scheme namely Din Dayal Swasthya Seva Yojana, a health insurance cover for all Goans, besides throwing open the 100-tonne per day municipal solid waste facility located on the Saligao plateau and inaugurating the extension of the Colvale Jail.
Addressing a press conference in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza and city MLA Sidharth Kunkalienkar on the eve of the 29th Goa Statehood Day, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said the government intends to convert the Colvale Jail, which was inaugurated exactly one year ago, into a reformatory home for the prisoners serving the sentences.
“Last year, only 30 per cent of the jail premises was inaugurated including male ward, kitchen and some facilities,” Parsekar, who also holds the home portfolio informed, stating that the May 30 inauguration will provide ward for female prisoners, as well as a 1,406 sq mts industrial block comprising workshops in art and crafts, tailoring, carpentry, candle-making and paper-making.
“An adjacent gallery section has also been provided to display the products manufactured by the jail inmates,” he noted, adding that a biogas plant in the jail kitchen and a bakery unit would also start functioning from May 30.
He said the inauguration of the jail extension would be followed by the felicitation of the prisoner students, who fared well in the examinations conducted for the courses run under the Indira Gandhi National Open University as well as the open school.
“We had introduced such courses for jail inmates interested in educating themselves, and around 100 prisoners opted for courses under the IGNOU, while 10 to 12 chose the open school,” he maintained.
Parsekar also stated that a review committee undertakes study of the prisoners in the jail, and depending on the improvement shown by the individual, part of his or her sentence is remitted.
“We have already relieved many prisoners of their sentences on the basis of their good conduct,” he mentioned, noting that the V M Salgaocar College of Law has been entrusted with a related project.
It was further informed that the Colvale Jail would soon have water harvesting project and a solar energy project.
Speaking about the municipal solid waste facility at Saligao, the Chief Minister said the technology linked to the particular facility is used for the first time in Asia, and works on bio-methanation system producing biogas from the wet organic fraction.
“The facility supports generation of electricity from the biogas as well as production of good quality compost from the digested sludge generated in the fermenters,” he revealed.
The facility having a capacity to treat 100-tonne garbage on daily basis will initially treat 25-tonne garbage generated in the nearby coastal area.
It was also informed that immediately after the launching of the Din Dayal Swasthya Seva Yojana at a special programme at Kala Academy on May 30 at 4 p. m, the Goa Electronics Limited would start taluka-wise registration of beneficiary families. The registration would continue for a two-and-a-half month period, followed by its implementation from August 15, later this year.
The scheme will provide health insurance cover to around 3 lakh Goan families residing in the state for a minimum of five years – excluding 50,000 families, whose members are government employees – with the facility of 447 medical procedures at the major government hospitals in Goa as well as the empanelled hospitals/ nursing homes, in and outside the state.
The scheme will be implemented in two categories, for a family of up to three persons, with the total annual insurance cover of Rs 2.5 lakh, and for a family of four or more persons, with the total annual insurance cover of Rs 4 lakh. GEL will charge one-time registration fee of Rs 200 for first category, while Rs 300 for the second one, from the families desiring to avail the scheme. However, the non-creamy OBC families, the ST and SC families, and families with a physically challenged person as their head, would have to pay only 50 per cent of these fees.
Speaking on the occasion, the Deputy Chief Minister said the scheme would annually put a liability of around Rs 120 crore on the government.
“However, we expect that annually 50 per cent of the treatment money under the scheme would come back to the government hospitals in the state,” he noted.