After extending health cover under Rashtriya Swasthiya Bima Yogana (RSBY) scheme to domestic and beedi workers and porters among others, Government has now decided to bring auto and taxi drivers under its ambit.

A cabinet note on the issue has been prepared and sources in Labour and Employment Ministry said the move was initiated in view of the swelling number of auto and taxi drivers in the unorganised sector.

They said the ultimate aim of the Ministry would be to bring everyone in the unorganised sector under the flagship RSBY programme, under which beneficiaries are entitled to hospitalisation coverage up to Rs 30,000 for most of the diseases that require hospitalisation.

About 4,500 private hospitals and 2,000 government hospitals are empanelled under the scheme.

The sources indicated that the modalities of the scheme including payment of premium would be marginally different in case of auto and taxi drivers.

At present, beneficiaries need to pay only Rs 30 as registration fee while central and state government pays the premium to the insurer.

The state government would be identifying the auto and taxi drivers and the help of the regional transport offices would be sought.

RSBY scheme was originally envisaged to cover BPL families, but was subsequently extended to MGNREGA workers, construction workers and domestic workers among others.

A budgetary allocation of Rs 350 crore was made for the RSBY in the current fiscal