Arogya Bhadratha proves a boon for police families

Vijayawada: Cashless treatment under Arogya Bhadratha has been one of the flagship programmes of the Andhra Pradesh police and is very useful to police personnel and their families, said the DGP K V Rajendranath Reddy. He said formed under the Trust Act in 1999, the health and medical welfare scheme is acknowledged as one of the best health care schemes in the country, he said. To mark the Police Martyrs Commemoration Day, the DGP explained various welfare schemes being implemented for the police personnel and their families.

He said Police Commemoration Day will be observed on October 21 and rich tributes will be paid to the police personnel who sacrificed their lives for the nation. Various programmes will be held from October 21 to 30 to mark the occasion. The DGP said the Arogya Bhadratha is a self-funded scheme and 11,120 police personnel and their family members were provided cashless treatment for various diseases from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022.

He said an amount of Rs 37.12 crore was spent on their treatment and police personnel, spouse, children and parents were provided treatment. He informed that 240 multi and super specialty hospitals are empanelled under Arogya Bhadratha and out of which 16 hospitals are in Hyderabad.

Rajendranath Reddy stated that non-refundable contributions of Rs 135 a month from the personnel of the ranks of police constable to SI and Rs 200 from CIs and above form the corpus for paying towards treatment charges to the personnel and their families, including dependent parents/children.

The DGP said the police department is providing benefits to the staff even after retirement. In the process of improving the lot of police families even after their retirement/death of breadwinners, the department entered into an MoU separately with Axis Bank and SBI. Because of this measure, accident victims will receive Rs 40 lakh (if SBI a/c holder) and Rs 60 lakh (Axis Bank). Even the natural death is covered to the tune of Rs 5 Lakh.

Apart from this, AP police maintains three other funds namely Welfare Fund, Education Fund and Widow Fund from which various welfare activities are being undertaken, said the DGP. Referring to home guards, the DGP said accidental death cover provided under GPAI is Rs 10 lakh for personnel who died in accidents.

The government is granting Rs 5 Lakh in all cases of death (either natural or accidental) of home guards while in service as ex gratia. Besides, funeral charges have been raised from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000.

Giving details of Police Commemoration Day and programmes the DGP said National Unity Day (Ekta Diwas) will be held on October 31. He added that a series of programmes are taken up by the police personnel during the period in memory of the martyrs to create awareness in the community about their sacrifices for the cause of national security. He said Smrithi parade will be organised on October 21 at Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium, Vijayawada where name and rank of all the personnel who laid down their lives while discharging duty during the preceding year all over the nation will be read and tributes will be paid.