Central and Western Railways along with the National Health Authority (NHA) held a beneficiary identification drive to zero in on contractual staff like porters attached to the national transporter in connection with the Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana.

Railway officials said the drive, held at CSMT and Mumbai Central on Saturday, was attended by the principal chief medical directors of WR and CR as well as the Maharashtra government's health agency. The drive was to increase awareness among porters about the provisions of this national scheme, they said.

"A total of 111 contractual staff were screened and 15 documents were sent for AB-PMJAY. At present seven railway hospitals of Western Railway, namely Jagjivan Ram Hospital at Mumbai Central, Divisional Hospitals at Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Ratlam, Rajkot, Dahod and Sub-Divisional Hospital at Valsad are empanelled under the Central scheme," a WR official said.

Sudhakar Shinde, CEO of State Health Agency (SHA) of Maharashtra, said, "These one-day pilot camps have been set up to increase awareness on the benefits of AB-PMJAY. It will enable people, especially the railways' contractual staff, to know if they are eligible to become beneficiaries the scheme and get E-cards accordingly." 

Earlier this year, the Railway ministry signed an MoU with NHA empanelling 91 hospitals covering 17 zones under AB-PMJAY. "These drives are a step forward to streamline processes and raise awareness among the railway hospitals about the scheme," Shinde said.