CHENNAI: In what could be seen as a rare note of bonhomie between archrivals, DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi on Friday welcomed Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s efforts in implementing the improvised State-sponsored health insurance scheme. Issuing a statement to this effect, the DMK chief said that he was not upset with the closure of Kalaignar Life Insurance Scheme as he was more concerned about the well-being of the people irrespective of name or scheme.He expressed happiness over the increase in coverage of illnesses from 642 to 1,016 under the new scheme, the inclusive coverage of existing beneficiaries under the Kalaignar Life Insurance Scheme and increase in the premium to Rs 4 lakh per family for 4 years from an earlier Rs 1 lakh for the same period.Karunanidhi said that the CM should also encourage people-oriented welfare schemes rolled out by the DMK regime with a broad mind as they were not implemented with the DMK’s money or from his pocket but from the government treasury.“We have never differentiated any scheme as AIADMK or DMK. Though we improvised schemes implemented by the previous AIADMK regimes, we never scrapped schemes just because it was implemented by AIADMK,” he said. On converting the New Secretariat building into a paediatric hospital, he asked, “Who is going to lose if the building is converted just because it was built in the DMK regime?”.
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