Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat launched the Atal Ayushman Uttarakhand Yojana at Rudraprayag on Friday. A total of 5,40,670 golden cards have been issued under this scheme so far. Speaking on the occasion, he said that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Ayshman Bharat Yojana, the first golden card of the country was given to Tara Devi of Rudraprayag district. He further said that Uttarakhand had become the first state in the country to provide health cover to all 23 lakh families in the state.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, he also said that a dedicated air ambulance service will be started in the state from January 26, while adding that even now helicopter service is provided to seriously ill persons in special circumstances. But now onwards, dedicated air ambulance service will provide this facility in Uttarakhand. The ICU services in each district will also be started within a year.

Rawat said that women groups will be provided loan of up to Rs 5lakh at one per cent interest rate.

Similarly, farmers in the state will also be provided interest free loans of Rs one lakh each.

He said that to encourage locals towards self employment 67-Nyay Panchayats are being developed as growth centres. The local people are directly linked with ‘Pirul’ (dry pine needles) policy. Under the policy, a target to give employment to 50,000 people at local level and to generate 150 MW of power from ‘Pirul’ has been fixed.

He said that the State Government has hit hard against corruption in the past 20 months and by investigating works and policies in social welfare, food, medical and NH-74 scandals, thousands of crores of public money has been saved. He said that everyone has to contribute to make Uttarakhand corruption free.

On the occasion, the CM also inaugurated and laid foundation stones of 23 developmental projects worth Rs 78.68 crore. He said that a guest house will be constructed at Rudraprayag and work of Digdhar Badma Sainik school will also be completed soon. The electrification of Kartik Swami temple will be done. Rawat said that approval for constructing 155 bridges had been given and 200 more bridges will be built and by 2020 all 355 bridges will be constructed. He said that to link youth with employment 200 buses will be provided on 50 per cent subsidy and these buses will be hired by the state roadways.

Finance and Parliamentary Affairs minister Prakash Pant, Rudraprayag MLA Bharat Singh Chaudhary and others were also present on the occasion.