The first set of Pehchan smart cards were distributed to beneficiaries of the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in Bangalore on Tuesday by Union Minister for Employment and Labour, M. Mallikarjun Kharge.
The smart cards entitle the insured person and his/ her family to step into any ESI dispensary, hospital or branch office of the ESIC across the country and avail themselves of the facilities and services in a hassle-free manner.
Mr. Kharge said the Pehchan smart cards, which will replace the existing paper-based identity cards, will be distributed to 1.2 crore workers and their families covered under the ESIC across India in due course of time.
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“One smart card will be given to the insured person and another to his or her family. Around 2.4 crore cards will be prepared under the project and the total number of beneficiaries will be around 6 crore,” he added.
The issue of smart cards is part of the ESIC’s Information Technology Roll Out Plan named “Project Panchdeep,” touted as the country’s largest e-governance scheme. The project entrusted to Wipro Technologies envisages the development of necessary hardware and software networking for country-wide implementation by August 2010.
Mr. Kharge said the smart card will have the photograph of the insured person, besides the medical history. All ESIC outlets that will be networked, will contain personal details and medical history of the insured persons and their family members. “There will be no scope for misuse of the facilities by producing bogus bills,” he said.
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Director-General of ESIC, S.K. Srivatsava, said the Corporation had a huge infrastructure comprising 144 hospitals, 42 hospital annexes, 1,397 ESI dispensaries, 1,753 panel clinics, 795 Branch and Pay offices, besides 51 regional, sub-regional and divisional offices. “Often, an employee needs to go out of town on work. He can carry his Pehchan smart card with him and leave the one issued to his family with his folks