Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008
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Online edition of India's National Newspaper Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version |
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Tamil Nadu
Workers resent starting dispensary New ESI hospital should be equipped to handle emergency cases AMBUR: Worker’s unions at Ambur are up in arms against the delay in construction of a full-fledged new ESI hospital here. The proposal for the hospital, which was drawn up in 1990-1991, is getting delayed for various administrative reasons and the contractor who had started the construction work is facing financial problems following non-settlement of bills. It is said that the contractor has pumped in over Rs.40 lakh for the construction of the building, which now remained incomplete. The worker’s unions in Ambur have given a clear deadline to complete the construction work otherwise they have planned a massive protest in February. They are upset that the district administration has not intervened to speed up the construction work. Representatives of various worker’s unions told The Hindu that they were against the plan of the ESI Corporation to start a dispensary at the building under construction for the workers who worked in various tannery and shoe units at Ambur and Vaniyambadi. The proposed dispensary would not solve the purpose. The workers would benefit only if a full-fledged ESI hospital functioned at Ambur. They said that as per the 1990-1991 records, 9,000 ESI cards were distributed to various workers at Ambur. At that time the ESI Corporation felt that a dispensary for the working community in Ambur would be sufficient. Hence the ESI Corporation proposed the construction of a dispensary, local office and quarters for the ESI doctors at the new construction site. But now the situation has changed. At present a total of 17,000 ESI cards have been issued. Added to this 52,000 family cards have been issued. Further, there were still workers in various parts of Ambur not covered under the ESI package. If these left out workers were included the total number of ESI and family cards would shoot up to 25,000 and 75,000 respectively. Hence, a full-fledged hospital would alone solve the purpose. They said that ESI hospital under construction should be equipped to handle emergency cases. Even if the ESI Corporation was stubborn on the dispensary idea it should be started with at least five beds for emergency cases including accidents and delivery. The workers now were forced to go to Vellore for treatment. On August 5, 2007 the Chennai ESI office gave an assurance that they would speed up the construction work. They also promised that there will be adequate infrastructure to handle complicated cases. In 2006, the ESI Corporation had accepted the proposal for a 50-bed hospital at the under construction site. The present ESI hospital at Ambur had inadequate facilites. There were only three doctors. The patient-doctor ratio should be increased. Moreover, at the present ESI hospital there faced a shortage of life saving drugs. There were no scanning facilities available at the present ESI hospital.
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