Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said he believes that the Sebaashray initiative will show the way to not just Bengal, but the whole nation. We will be giving free of cost treatment to over 23 lakh people. We have tried our level best to incorporate all possible facilities, said Abhishek on Thursday, adding, “We held a conference at Amtala in November 2024, which was attended by over 1,200 doctors from various districts. They responded to our call and today, we have inaugurated this initiative. For the next 75 days, we will have the Sebaashray health camps across multiple areas in Diamond Harbour. These camps will run for 10 days each across all the seven Assembly Constituencies. On an average, there will be around 40-50 health camps in every Assembly constituency.”

He said he keeps his word. “In January 2024, I had announced from Pailan that we will give an old-age pension. As per our announcement, we gave the old-age pension to around 75,000 beneficiaries in Diamond Harbour via direct bank transfer on January 7, 2024. This is a model for India.”

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He said we also organised the Doctor on Wheels initiative in Diamond Harbour. We completed 100 per cent vaccination in Diamond Harbour through our ‘100 per cent Vaccination Drive’. The Sebaashray initiative, no one in India, across Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies, has done it. This is being done for the first time. Around 300 health camps will be organised in the next 75 days across 7 ACs, 71 GPs, and 93 wards in Diamond Harbour. “I believe that this initiative will show the way to not just Bengal, but the whole nation. We will be giving free of cost treatment to over 23 lakh people. One camp covers 6-7 booths so that one camp can address only 6,000-7,000 people. Despite the leftover debt, the state government did its best to uplift the health infrastructure by making super specialty hospitals in the past 13 years. Every block has one health center, but I tried to bring it down further and ensure that every cluster of 6-7 booths has a health camp.”

He added, “The state government has worked for the people of Bengal. Who has ensured free treatment and Swasthya Sathi card? Ayushman Bharat came much later. But it was Bengal and the Maa, Mati, Manush government who showed the way. Ayushman Bharat has a long list of eligibility criteria, however, the same is not the case for Swasthya Sathi.