TIRUPUR: Nearly a lakh workers and their families have been craving for medical facilities in this hosiery town as the State Government is yet to give an undertaking to run the Employees' State Insurance Corporation Hospital (ESIC).

ESIC authorities have identified a 2.5-acre land belonging to Tamil Nadu Small Industries Corporation (TANSI) at Kumar Nagar here for the proposed 100-bed hospital. They have submitted a proposal to the State Government five months ago for the much-awaited multi-specialty hospital.

The State Government has to initiate the land acquisition process, which is yet to commence, official sources said.

Contributing a major chunk of revenue to the Corporation, as many as 88,000 workers are covered under the scheme in over 7,000 industrial establishments here. About 40 per cent of the Rs.5-crore revenue a month in the Coimbatore region - comprising Coimbatore, Erode and the Nilgiris districts - comes from Tirupur alone, the sources said.

The then Union Labour Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao announced that a 100-bed hospital would be established here when he visited the city to attend the May Day organised by Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam last year.

The Joint Commissioner of ESIC, Coimbatore, J.H. Nayak, told The Hindu that the Corporation is ready to purchase the land, construct the hospital building and provide necessary equipment and other infrastructure. The State Government has to post the doctors and paramedical staff and run the hospital.

``Though the TANSI quotes Rs.15.5-crore for the 2.5-acre land, it is still negotiable. We have been in touch with Health and Labour department authorities to proceed further,'' said Mr. Nayak.

Trade union leaders are urging authorities to speed up the process as there were only two dispensaries run by the ESIC without inpatient treatment facility. According to a conservative estimate, on an average, four persons each for every insured person will benefit once the hospital started functioning.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail