Chandigarh, Dec 5 (IANS): Rajya Sabha member Vikramjit Singh Sahney on Tuesday questioned the settlement of claims of Punjab under Ayushman Bharat Health Scheme.

He highlighted the variation in the data provided by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry in Parliament and replied under the Right to Information Act (RTI).

Sahney said in the RTI reply in June 2023 the ministry admitted that 53 and 74 per cent claims have been pending for settlement in 2022 and 2023, respectively, under Ayushman Bharat.

However, in Parliament, the ministry said the unsettled claims for these two financial years are only 2.2 and 5.22 per cent, respectively.

"We don’t know which data is correct and the Ministry of Health should correct the data and also furnish the corrected data of claims filed and settled under Ayushman Bharat in Punjab," he said.

He hoped 50 per cent of the claims are automatically released at the time of claim submission.

"There is a serious anomaly in the total claims by beneficiaries. As per the RTI, it was 14.85 lakh claims last year and in the Parliament reply it was mentioned 1.63 crore," the MP added.