The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has decided to extend its Dhanvantari Gold health scheme to serving councillors, including nominated members, and their families, according to a report by Loksatta. The decision will cover 138 councillors and their eligible family members.
Under the Dhanvantari Gold scheme, councillors will receive medical treatment at 50 hospitals in Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune, along with 10 single-specialty hospitals that have agreements with the municipal corporation. Treatment will be provided under the scheme’s category-one provisions, according to the report.
Each councillor will have to contribute Rs 1,500 a month towards the scheme. The contribution will be deducted from the councillor’s honorarium. The municipal corporation has made an annual provision of Rs 20 lakh for the medical treatment of each family.
If a family’s medical expenses exceed Rs 20 lakh in a year, a 15-member committee appointed under the chairmanship of the municipal commissioner will decide on the additional expenditure, the report said. The available information does not specify the total projected cost to the municipal corporation of extending the scheme to councillors.
The Dhanvantari Gold scheme was introduced for municipal employees in 2025 after the corporation discontinued its earlier Dhanvantari health scheme and introduced a health insurance programme in 2024. Complaints about the insurance programme reportedly increased, leading to the return of the Dhanvantari Gold model.
The employee scheme currently covers 10,493 serving and retired employees and their family members. Employee contributions vary by category: employees in categories A and B contribute Rs 1,500 a month, category C employees contribute Rs 1,100, and fourth-grade employees contribute Rs 700. These contributions are expected to generate Rs 12.17316 crore, with the remaining amount funded through the municipal corporation’s budget.
The decision to extend the benefit to councillors followed an instruction from Pimpri-Chinchwad Mayor Ravi Landge to the municipal medical department, according to Loksatta. The report does not state when the councillor coverage will formally begin or whether all administrative approvals and hospital arrangements have been completed.
The scheme also provides assistance of up to Rs 1 lakh for in-vitro fertilisation treatment for the first child of eligible municipal officers and employees facing infertility. However, employees whose illness is medically attributed to alcohol consumption will not be eligible for benefits under the Dhanvantari Gold scheme, the report said.
