Chandigarh, Mar 12 (UNI) The scope of the Sanjivni Health Care Scheme, has been enlarged by the Punjab government to include landless families from the next financial year.

This scheme which was launched last year was limited to provide health insurance cover to members of the cooperative societies and so far it had benefited over 18,500 patients with a pay out of over Rs 35 crore last year.

Informing this at a media conference here today, Cooperation Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh said the scheme would now be known as 'Bhai Kanhaya Sehat Seva'. Bhai Kanhaya was a follower of the tenth Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, who would attend to the wounded on the battlefield, even if they belonged to the enemy camp.

The Minister said that all the Directors on the Boards and Managing Committees of apex/central cooperative institutions would be given an insight into the working of the Cooperative Departments.

Various laws and rules which govern the cooperative societies and inputs into how to make these profitable would be discussed in seminars and training programmes to be conducted by the Punjab Institutue Cooperative Training (PICT).

Regular refresher courses would also be held by PICT for this purpose so as to empower the democratically elected representatives and provide them sufficient inputs to enhance the quality of performance of the Boards and Managing Committees, he said.

The minister also informed in the next fiscal year the government would introduce the 'Self Supporting Cooperative Societies Act', which was passed in the last Vidhan Sabha session. The Act is currently pending for Presidential assent.

UNI