Provide cashless medical services to retired MCD teachers, employees: PIL in HC
Dec 10, 2020
New Delhi [India], December 10 : A public interest litigation has been moved in the Delhi High Court seeking direction to provide cashless medical services to retired teachers and employees of three Municipal Corporations of Delhi, who have deposited the subscription fees for the purpose.
The PIL, filed by Akhil Dilli Prathmik Shikshak Sangh through advocate Ranjit Sharma, also sought directions to the respondents to reimburse the medical bills of the retired employees on account of medical treatment without delay.
The matter was listed to come up for hearing before a division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan today, but was adjourned to January 13 as the bench concerned didn't assemble.
The plea said that the MCD was bifurcated into three namely, South, North, and East DMCs with a common Health Department for all three corporations. The corporations have taken subscription premium from the retired teachers and employees for extending the cashless medical facility, it added.
It claimed that despite the retired employees having deposited the premium, the corporations are yet to extend to them the cashless medical facility. The employees are required to first report to the Health Department and after obtaining the referral from the Department they can seek medical treatment from the approved Hospital, it said.
"Not only this, if the approved Hospital advises surgery the retired employee is required to revert back to the Health Department for approval, and only then, the actual treatment will start. In emergency cases such a procedure is not only cumbersome but also likely to prove fatal," the plea said.
It also alleged that the hospitals do not provide cashless treatment. The employees have to deposit money first and seek reimbursement from the Health Department of MCD later which takes a huge time. This act of the M.C.D is absolutely unfair and illegal, it added.
The plea said that a large number of retired employees, who did not receive pension on time, had to face extreme hardships in arranging money for their treatment as the Hospitals did not provide cashless treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It said that Giriraj Sharma, the second petitioner, got his wife treated for a heart ailment in BLK Super Speciality Hospital in Delhi on September 8, 2020, and had to arrange Rs 1.39 lakhs to pay to for the treatment of his wife.
"He had deposited Rs 39,000 as premium in 2010 on his retirement. He was issued an identity card for cashless medical facilities, yet he had to pay money to the hospital. The medical bill submitted by him to the South DMC is yet to be reimbursed to him," the plea said.
"He, however, is not the only sufferer there are many other retired employees running from office to office to get reimbursement of their medical bills which the three Corporations have kept pending under various objections," it added.
