One more ESI dispensary will be opened in Tirupur industrial cluster very shortly with a sanctioned strength of five doctors so to ease the congestions in the existing two dispensaries, according to R. Magesh, the State Medical Commissioner of Employees State Insurance Corporation.
“The dispensaries with five doctors are supposed to cater to a maximum of 15,000 insured persons under the ESI scheme,” Dr. Magesh told The Hindu on the sidelines of an event which the ESIC conducted to listen to the grievances of the insured persons at SIHMA hall here. On the disparity noticed in industrially buzzing district like Tirupur between the actual number of workers employed and the number of insured persons under ESI scheme, Dr. Magesh said that the issue was a concern.
According to ESIC sources, only near to 1.5 lakh people are presently insured under the ESI scheme in the entire Tirupur district even though the number of workers employed in Tirupur knitwear cluster alone was computed to be much more than the said figures.
R. Keshavdas, the ESIC director for Coimbatore sub-region, told this paper that according to the law, every employer who had a minimum of 10 employees in his industrial unit, hospital, educational institution or commercial establishment should bring each of those employees under the ESI coverage.
On the multi-speciality hospital project planned by ESIC in Tirupur that did not take off after the purchase of land, Mr. Keshavdas clarified that construction did not start as the legal dispute on the title deed of the land was not yet resolved.
