Hyderabad: Marking one more episode of confrontation on administrative matters, the Andhra Pradesh and the Telangana governments have appointed their own Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) for the ArogyaSri scheme.The Telangana government has appointed IAS officer Buddaprakash M Jyothi as the CEO and the AP government gave the additional charge of CEO to Lav Agarwal, the  Commissioner of Health & Family Welfare.

As per the Re-organisation Act, the Trust has to be bifurcated between the two States. On the basis of this, the Telangana government has appointed its own CEO. But, the authority over the Trust has been with the Andhra Pradesh government from the beginning. During the reshuffle of IAS officers, the CEO of the Trust, Dhananjaya Reddy, was transferred and Agarwal was given full additional charge of the body. Now, there are two heads for the Trust. Andhra Pradesh contends that until the bifurcation takes place, Telangana has no right to appoint CEO to the body.

The Chandrababu Naidu government renamed the Rajiv ArogyaSri scheme as the NTR Vaidyaseva last November and increased the insurance cover from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh for each family under the scheme. The government also added 100 more diseases under the ambit of the rechristened scheme. This takes the number of ailments covered under NTR Vaidyaseva from 938 to 1,038.

The health ministry officials of the two States maintain that there will not be any problem regarding the flow of funds, as the two governments have put in place separate system of accounts. Sources said the employees of the two governments in the Trust are already getting salaries separately.