Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya has said the Government will set up three 100-bed hospitals in Ramagundam, Warangal and Goshamahal in the city if the State Government allocates five acres of land for each.
The Minister, who was speaking to reporters after a review meeting with Telangana State Labour Minister Nayini Narasimha Reddy and other officials on labour-related programmes implemented by State government here on Saturday, said the proposal was made by Mr. Reddy and he had responded positively.
Similarly, the ESIC dispensaries at Tandur, Doulatabad, Khammam, Suryapet, Maheswaram, Siddipet and Kalvakurthy would be upgraded to six-bed hospitals to reduce patient woes who were forced to travel long distances for medicare. An amount of Rs. 10 crore would be provided for each hospital for construction and infrastructure facilities and wanted the Telangana Government to identify the land immediately.
Beedi workers’ hospitals
The Minister said beedi workers’ hospitals located in the State would also be merged with ESIC Hospitals and the first one to be upgraded would be at Nirmal.
As the Central Government had increased the housing subsidy, it would be extended for beedi workers and the increase would be from Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 1.5 lakh. The Ministry was planning to construct 10,000 houses for beedi workers in the State from its quota.
Under Social Security Scheme 18 lakh contract labourers would be covered under the services of ESIC and the final decision would be taken after consultations with the officials. On the request of Telangana Government, the Central Government had decided to set up two Sub-Regional ESIC Centres at Ramagundam and Kothagudem and one Employees Provident Fund Regional office at Khammam.
