Karnataka: Who’ll run ESI college? Bandaru Dattatreya says decision by month-end
KALABURAGI: He came, he saw, and he left. That succinctly sums up the visit of Union minister of state for labour Bandaru Dattatreya to the Rs 1500 crore Employees’ State Insurance Corporation’s (ESIC) medical college complex here. For, the contentious issue of who should run the medical college complex-ESIC or the state government-has remained unresolved.
Mr Dattatreya, who inspected the complex after holding discussions with the chief architect of the project and Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, said a final decision on whether to hand it over to the state government or run by the ESIC would be taken this month end.
“This is one of the best medical college complexes in the entire country. Now, that this huge infrastructure has come up in the most backward region of the state, I am positively looking at putting this infrastructure to best use. There is no conflict on the issue. I am constantly in touch with the state government and a final decision will be taken by this month end as it is a priority issue for us. If the state government fails to come forward to run it, we will run it”, Mr Dattrateya stated.
Medical education minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil, district in-charge minister Qamar-ul-Islam and labour minister T Parameshwar Naik were present during the discussions.
According to Mr Dattatreya, the decision on who should run the medical college was being delayed due to lack of sufficient number of insured persons (IPs) in the region.
“To run a 100-seat medical college, as per MCI norms, there should be a 500-bed hospital. And for a 500-bed hospital, there should be four lakh IPs. As against this, there are only 25,000 IPs in the region. So, we are examining how to resolve the issue.
But let there be no apprehension in the minds of people of the state that this complex is being wantonly put to disuse since there is a BJP-led government at the Centre”, he clarified.
PM to launch Smart cards for unorganised workers
Asserting that the Narendra Modi government was committed to development of the unorganised sector, Union minister of state for labour Bandaru Dattatreya announced on Saturday that Mr Modi would launch a new social security scheme for workers of this sector.
He told the media here after inspecting the ESIC medical college and hospital complex that under the scheme, workers would be issued smart cards named as “U Win” to get benefits of health, insurance and old age pension.
On October 16, the Prime Minister would launch a new initiative of the government-’Shramameva Jayate’. Under this each scheme, the establishment would be given a LIN number to connect with a portal. “Our aim is to remove the licence raj and provide a transparent rule”, he added.
To a query Mr Dattatreya stated that the Union government would start investing PF funds in equity. “In this month, we will invest one per cent of Rs 8.33 lakh crores fund and by the end of 2016, we will invest five per cent. After seeing the result, we will take further decision”, he added.
A similar decision on investing ESIC funds in equity would also be taken. With a view to bringing in transparency, employees would be provided information about their provident fund balance on cell phones, he added.
