Bandaru seeks land from state govt for four 300-bed, thirty five 6-bed ESIC hospitals in Gujarat

Ankleshwar: Speaking on the occasion of inauguration of new ESIC hospital here, Union minister of state(independent charge) for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya said, his ministry has proposed four new 300-bed ESIC hospitals in Gujarat at a total cost of Rs 1200 crore.

“We have proposed our plan to build 300-bed hospitals at four places namely Valsad, Halol, Hazira and Anand before the state government. Each 300-bed hospital will see Rs 300 crore expenditure, totaling Rs 1200 crore in four,” Dattatreya said in his speech.

Dattatreya in presence of Gujarat Chief Minister who was sharing stage with him said,” there are 104 (ESIC) dispensaries in Gujarat. I just spoke to Chief Minister in helicopter that if state government allocate land, I want to convert each of 35 dispensaries into 6-bed hospital in order to provide medical care to labourers at location nearby. If we do this, beneficiaries will not need to travel to bigger hospitals like one at Ankleshwar. We will give Rs 8-10 crore for 6-bed hospital conversion of each of 35 dispensaries. We at the Centre are ready to release minimum Rs 200 crore fund for this initiative if state government allocate land. We believe that medical care should be provided in villages. Cities already have such facility.”

Dattatreya said, “after Shri Modi took over as Prime Minister we have done much improvement for labouers. Minimum wage for agriculture labour in ‘C’ category was only Rs 2036 for last 11 years, but Modi government has increased it by Rs 300. Maternity benefit earlier was limited to 12 weeks which will be now 26 weeks. During this period women will get wage just by sitting at home. The government has for the first time increased bonus from Rs 3,500 to 7,000. Coverage benefit has been increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 21,000. Previous government could not work in favor of laborers for ten years.”

In response to Dattatreya’s appeal, Gujarat Chief Minister gave no promise regarding land allocation in his speech but just said, “I am happy that Centre wishes to open four more 300-bed hospitals in Gujarat.”

Speaking at this occasion, an ESIC official said, “in July 2015, the PM launched ESIC 2.0 and under that initiative we are spreading ESIC coverage area across the country. Inauguration of Ankleshwar hospital is part of that drive. We will be starting the works for ESIC hospital in Surat most probably in the first week of April. It will be a 100-bed state-of-the-art hospital.We want to open four more hospitals and we have made proposal before the state government for it. We need cooperation from all for proposed expansion in Gujarat.”

DeshGujarat