West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday that some facilities at state-run government-run hospitals will be restricted to residents of the state only. People from other states will not be able to avail them.

“Free treatment at government hospitals is unique in Bengal but we have noticed that people from some neighbouring states and even neighbouring countries come here to avail of this facility. Given the financial constraints of the state it is not possible to provide free treatment at government hospitals, to people coming from other states and countries,” Mamata said while addressing sixth convention of West Bengal University of Health Sciences on Thursday.

She added that a special card would be issued to residence of Bengal who will be entitled to avail free treatment facilities at state-run hospitals. She was however quick to add that withdrawal of free treatment facility did not mean that patients from other countries or states would be refused treatment at government hospitals.

Sources said that on an average 20% of patients who get free treatment at government-ram hospitals were from other states and countries. They said that these people come mostly from Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern parts of UP, Bangladesh and Nepal to avail of treatment in Bengal. Many of them are labourers and daily wage earners who, so far, have availed free medical treatment given to them.

Mamata also criticised the union HRD ministry over the question paper fiasco in NEET examination 2018. “Many of the questions were not available in Bengali script. In some cases there were fewer question papers compared to the number of examinees. I have already written to the Union HRD Minister protesting against it,” she said.