Gandhinagar, Oct 24 (IANS): Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Saturday announced that the state government's health schemes 'Maa' and 'Maa Vatsalya' will now be merged with the Central government's 'Ayushman Bharat' scheme so that more number of ailments can be covered and the procedures eased further.

Patel announced this at the newly built U.N. Mehta Heart hospital, which was virtually inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He told the media that, "Till now the beneficiaries of 'Maa' and 'Maa Vatsalya' schemes used to avail treatment upto three lakh and five lakh rupees for serious illness and ailments free of charge at the government and government-approved hospitals. But now to ease the procedure and include more number of diseases, both the schemes have been merged into the Central government's 'Ayushman Bharat' scheme. Under it the beneficiary would get treated free of cost upto a maximum of Rs five lakh."

"The criteria for availing the benefits of different packages under the scheme will remain the same but now the beneficiary won't have to go through different procedures and submit various documents. There will only be one set of cards linked with Aadhaar card necessary to avail the benefits," added Patel.