Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet on Tuesday approved cashless medical treatment of up to Rs 5 lakh for 1,70,366 non-teaching employees associated with secondary and basic education institutions in the state. The government will incur an estimated annual expenditure of Rs 51.11 crore towards insurance premiums for the beneficiaries.

Finance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna announced the decision after the Cabinet meeting. He said the scheme would extend medical benefits to non-teaching personnel and their dependent family members, following an earlier announcement by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to provide similar facilities to teachers.

Under the secondary education department's proposal, 48,062 non-teaching employees will be covered by the scheme. The estimated annual expenditure on insurance premiums for this category is Rs 14.41 crore, Khanna said.

The beneficiaries will include non-teaching staff employed in aided and unaided secondary schools, Sanskrit schools, and offices and institutions operating under the Samagra Shiksha programme.

The Cabinet also approved a similar medical insurance facility for 1,22,304 non-teaching employees associated with the basic education sector. This category includes clerical staff working in institutions under the Basic Education Council, aided junior high schools, unaided schools, and state and district project offices.

The annual expenditure on insurance premiums for employees covered under the basic education proposal is estimated at Rs 36.69 crore, the minister said.

According to Khanna, the state government will contribute Rs 3,000 per beneficiary towards the annual insurance premium under both proposals. The combined annual expenditure of approximately Rs 51.11 crore will cover the insurance premiums for the two categories of employees.

The cashless treatment facility will also extend to eligible dependent family members of the covered employees. The announcement, however, did not specify the implementation timeline or provide further details about the hospitals and medical procedures covered under the scheme.

The decision extends the proposed healthcare coverage beyond teaching staff to include non-teaching personnel working across different institutions and administrative offices in the state's education system.

Khanna also said the Cabinet had approved other proposals concerning educational infrastructure, grain storage capacity and investment promotion during the meeting. However, he did not provide further details about these proposals in the announcement.