West Bengal government employees and pensioners enrolled under the West Bengal Health Scheme (WBHS) must surrender any Swasthya Sathi or Ayushman Bharat cards held by them or their beneficiaries by October 31, according to a government notification issued on Friday.
The directive requires those covered under WBHS who hold or have held the other cards to submit a formal declaration along with proof or an acknowledgment of surrender. Employees must submit the documents to their respective heads of office, while pensioners must submit them to the office where they are required to file their WBHS claims.
The notification said the government had found that certain employees and pensioners, including members of the All India Service, were holding Swasthya Sathi and/or Ayushman Bharat cards despite being enrolled under WBHS. It said the cards could be held by the employees or pensioners themselves or by their beneficiaries.
The order places responsibility on heads of offices, drawing and disbursing officers, and pension-sanctioning authorities to receive the declarations, verify the accompanying surrender proof and maintain a compliance log. This creates an administrative process in which individual declarations must be matched with documentary evidence before the cases are recorded as compliant.
The government has warned of consequences for those who do not meet the October 31 deadline. The notification states that medical facilities and benefits provided under WBHS will be temporarily suspended for non-compliance. For employees, failure to follow the direction will additionally be treated as misconduct and will lead to the immediate initiation of formal disciplinary proceedings under the applicable service rules.
The notification does not indicate any change to the eligibility rules or benefit structure of WBHS, Swasthya Sathi or Ayushman Bharat. Instead, it addresses overlapping enrolment among people already covered by the state government health scheme and sets out the procedure for documenting surrender.
The order also distinguishes between the roles of employees and pensioners in submitting their declarations. Employees are required to approach their respective head of office, while pensioners must use the office through which their WBHS claims are submitted. The designated authorities are expected to retain the compliance records after checking the surrender acknowledgments.
The October 31 deadline will therefore require affected employees, pensioners and beneficiaries to complete both the surrender process and the related paperwork. The next administrative step is the verification and logging of those declarations by the relevant offices and authorities.
