New Delhi, Feb 20 (PTI) Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) on Monday decided to set up a 350-bed hospital in Uttar Pradesh and five hospitals with 100 beds each in Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.

"Considering the increase in the number of workers, ESI Corporation also approved the proposals for setting up of 100 bedded hospitals at Belagavi (Karnataka), Shamshabad (Telangana), Baramati (Maharashtra), Kishangarh, Ajmer (Rajasthan) and Balasore (Odisha)," the ministry of labour & employment said in a statement.

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The proposal with regard to setting up new ESIC hospitals was approved at the 190th ESIC meeting on Monday at Chandigarh. The meeting was chaired by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister for Labour & Employment and Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Minister of State for Labour & Employment, Petroleum & Natural Gas Rameswar Teli also attended the meeting.

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At the meeting, it was also decided to upgrade the newly approved 30-bed ESIC hospital at Rangpo, Sikkim to make it a 100-bed facility and to take over the ESIS hospitals, Gunadala, Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) and Maithan, Ranchi (Jharkhand) from the respective state governments, the statement said.

These hospitals will be directly operated by ESIC to provide better medical care and facilities to workers and their family members, it said.

Keeping in view the sparsely populated north-eastern region, acute shortage of private hospitals/dispensaries/nursing homes etc. and financial position of ESI Scheme in north-eastern states, ESIC decided to continue providing financial support to northeastern states and Sikkim in running the ESI Scheme.

The entire expenditure up to the ceiling will be borne by ESI Corporation for north-eastern states (except Assam) with effect from financial year 2023-24.

According to the statement, an additional financial assistance of Rs 40 lakh per dispensary (Rs 10 lakh quarterly) to state governments, will also be started. This shall also remain available for the new dispensaries, if they are opened as per the extant instructions.

ESI Corporation in the meeting agreed to the proposal of extending the benefits available under Atal Beemit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana for two more years. Atal Beemit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana (ABVKY) is a welfare measure in the form of cash compensation up to 90 days once in lifetime of the worker in the contingency unemployment.

"Foreseeing the considerable increase in the number of insured workers and their dependents coming under the ambit of ESI Scheme after the implementation of Social Security Code – 2020, Minister Bhupender Yadav directed ESIC to lay emphasis on strengthening and expanding the medical services infrastructure by adopting multi pronged strategies for providing primary medical care," it said.

The ESIC also approved the proposal for extension of medical care facilities to the general public free of cost in ESIC hospital and medical college, Alwar (Rajasthan) and Bihta (Bihar) till March 31, 2024. Drugs/dressings and other consumables will also be provided free of cost.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)