As many as 20,000 workers are being forced to go to Visakhapatnam for treatment owing to lack of an Employees State Insurance (ESI) hospital facility in the industrial area of Pydibhimavaram of Srikakulam district.
In some cases workers, who sustain serious injuries due to industrial accidents, succumb on their way to the hospital located at Markapuram in Visakhapatnam.
The workers pay around Rs.3 crore every month to get the medical facility under Employees State Insurance facility. However, neither the government nor the ESI authorities have taken steps to establish the hospital, which had been a long pending demand of the workers from Pydibhimavaram. They also sought dispensaries at Chilkapalem, Amadalavalsa and Palasa.
CITU general secretary D. Govinda Rao blamed the government for ignoring the interests of the workers. “The ESI authorities are collecting crores every day from the workers. But it has neglected their needs. The hospital can be built with an expenditure of Rs.50 lakh,” he said.
