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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that the Central Armed Police Force (CAPFs) should take care of the country's security, the Modi government will look after their families.

Launching the 'Ayushmaan CAPF' Scheme health cards at the national level here, he said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always given paramount importance to the interests of the security forces and has taken many steps for their welfare.

According to officials of the Ministry, the scheme has been designed to cover all serving personnel and their dependents of the seven Central Armed Police Forces under the Ministry of Home Affairs namely Assam Rifles (ARs), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Security Guard (NSG) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and under this scheme 35,58,773 security personnel will be given this card.

CAPF personnel and their families will now be able to avail cashless in-patient and out-patient healthcare facilities at all hospitals empanelled under Ayushmaan Bharat PM-JAY or CGHS.

The scheme is a joint initiative of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and National Health Authority (NHA).

Under this scheme 32,972 troopers of the NSG, 2,35,132 of Assam Rifles, 3,33,243 of ITBP, 2,54,573 of SSB, 4,66,927 of CISF, 10,48,928 of BSF, 11,86,998 of CRPF will be facilitated.

Th Home Minister launched the scheme by handing over the Ayushmaan card to a personnel. He also handed over 'Ayushmaan CAPF' Scheme health cards to the NSG Director General for distribution to NSG personnel.

From Tuesday onwards, health cards distribution will be undertaken in all CAPFs and the number of cards distributed will be displayed on the website of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on a daily basis. The distribution of about 35 Lakh cards will be completed by December, 2021.

Shah had launched 'Ayushmaan CAPF' scheme on Pilot basis in Assam on January 23, 2021 to provide healthcare services to all CAPFs personnel and their dependents.

As a part of celebration of 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' it was decided that the process of making of health cards was speeded up and now all 35 lakh cards will be distributed to Force personnel and their family members by December, 2021.

The pan-India roll out of Ayushmaan Scheme for CAPFs will provide seamless access to healthcare services to all serving CAPF personnel and their dependents anywhere in the country at all AB PM-JAY and CGHS empanelled hospitals.

To enable seamless services to security forces's beneficiaries, the NHA has created appropriate mechanism with a dedicated toll-free helpline 14588, an online grievance management system, and a stringent fraud and abuse detection, prevention and control system, the officials added.