Saraswati Alhat, 53, never thought she would have to face such mental trauma after a successful angioplasty.

She has been in the causalty ward of J J Hospital for more than a month because the government is not clearing her bills. Saraswati is covered under the Employees State Insurance Scheme.

The lady, who is just 4 feet 2 inches tall, works at Malson Electronics at Lower Parel and stays alone at nearby Dadar in Mumbai.

Her husband died four years after their marriage and she decided not to remarry. She has no kids.

After deductions she gets Rs 1,600 to take home every month. She has been working with the company for a decade and has for a long time been getting a nominal amount of Rs 70 deducted from her salary under the central government-run insurance scheme.

Under the scheme, the government had been deducting 1.75% from her salary every month. The employer's contribution was 4.75% of the salary.

"Every month they would deduct up to Rs 70 from my salary and they promised to provide me with all medical facilities. They also promised to pay my hospital bills; but it has been more than a month. The hospital won't discharge me unless my bills are cleared."

Saraswati says, "I am self-dependent person and don't want to become a burden on anyone. I want to go home and rejoin work. But the hospital is not allowing me."

The central government manages the insurance scheme with the help of the state government.

"The state government does not have any role to play when it comes to the payment. We are a monitoring body. It is up to the insurance corporation to pay the bill," says Amitabh [Images] Joshi, joint secretary in the state labour department.

Sarawati is upset about the government's attitude.

Before the angioplasty she had an angiography done. She is yet to be reimbursed for that procedure too.

The angiography showed that one of the valves of her heart had 90 per cent blockage. She had suffered a lot of chest pain and was recommended immediate angioplasty.

The ESIS-run hospital, which did the first procedure, wrote to J J Hospital saying it was waiting for the government to clear the payment for the angioplasty and that J J could go ahead with it.

Now Saraswati is lying in the hospital since January 1, the day the angioplasty was done.

"I always live independently, but now I am in hospital. My relatives are visiting the ESIS office. It is a bad situation. My relatives are getting disturbed because of me."

J J Hospital has written several letters to the ESIS hospital to clear her payment.

"They are saying that the government has halted all payments, which is why our bills are not being cleared," said Dashrath, a relative of Saraswati.

He added "There are many more cases like this. It is bad that we have to go through such situations for our own money."