Guwahati: The Employment State Insurance (ESI) authority received a 5.5 acre block of land from the Tripura government on January 15 in order to build a 100-bed hospital for the 60,000 beneficiaries of ESI contributing members.
Union Minister for labour and environment Bhupendra Yadav and Minister of State Rameshwar Teli virtually laid the hospital’s foundation stone after receiving the property for free.
State Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Pratima Bhowmik and the MLA of the area and Assembly Speaker Ratan Chakraborty were also present during the inauguration.
Bhupendra Yadav said that the hospital’s construction will be finished in three years and after Guwahati, a second ESI hospital will be built in Agartala to serve the entire northeastern region.
Earlier the previous left front government had handed over a prime plot of land to ESI authority for setting up a hospital in Shyamali Bazar area of Agartala about seven years ago but the hospital is yet to be set up.
Moreover, there is a virtually nonexistent dispensary that offers very little to ESI programme participants.