Land sought for 3 ESIC hospitals in Telangana

​Hyderabad: Union Minister of State for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya said that the Central government has proposed to set up three 100-bedded hospitals in Ramagundam, Warangal and Goshamahal (Hyderabad), if the State government allocates land.

While addressing a press conference,after the review meeting with the Telangana State Labour Minister Naini Narasimha Reddy and other officials on Saturday, Dattatreya said that the ESIC dispensaries at Tandur, Doulatabad, Khammam, Suryapet, Maheswaram, Siddipet and Kalwakurthy would be upgraded to 6-bedded hospitals. He said Rs 10 crore will be provided for each hospital for construction and infrastructure facilities.

The Union Minister asked Naini Narasimha Reddy to see that land for the construction of hospitals was made available soon. All the Beedi workers’ hospitals located in the State would be merged with the ESIC Hospitals. First upgraded hospital will be constructed in Nirmal.

Dattatreya said that the housing subsidy for the beedi workers will be increased from Rs 40,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh. The ministry is planning to construct 10,000 houses for beedi workers in the State. The Centre is also planning to provide the services of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and ESI facilities to the beedi workers.

Under Social Security Scheme 18 lakh contract labourers will be covered under the services of ESIC. In this regard, a decision has to be taken after consulting the ESIC board officials.

Dattatreya said that a decision has to be taken on the request of Telangana government to set up 2 Sub Regional ESIC Centres at Ramagundam and Kothagudem and one Employees Provident Fund Regional office at Khammam.

The Union Minister said that the Centre is planning to provide social security like ESI and EPF for construction workers.

Union Ministry of Labour Additional Secretary Heeralal Samaria and other ESIC officials were also present in the press conference.