ESIC medical services to cover all dist by year-end:Dattatreya

Union Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya today said the Centre will ensure medical services under the Employee's State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in all the districts of the country by this year-end.
"The Centre is working toward ensuring social, job and wage security for workers," he said at the foundation stone-laying ceremony to upgrade the ESIC Pandunagar hopsital here to a super-specialty facility.
The hospital will be upgraded at a cost of Rs 361 crore and will add 312 beds to its existing strength of 300. Work is expected to be completed within 15 months.
The upgraded facility will have cardiology, neurology, neuro-surgery, urology, nephrology, oncology and opthalmology departments.

"If the Uttar Pradesh government allots land and ensures other facilities, the Centre is willing to allocate Rs 500 crore to upgrade 15 ESIC dispensaries to hospitals, and build 45 new ESIC hospitals in the state," he said, adding the central government has already sent a proposal to Uttar Pradesh government in this regard.
Talking to reporters, he said, "The Centre was also looking into demands of increasing pensions of retired EPFO employees from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 and is mulling increasing the number of pensioners from 25 lakh to 50 lakh."
He said every citizen will have a house by 2020 and we will ensure that every worker has a house by the time of retirement.

The Union minister, however, refused to comment when asked about India's surgical strikes in PoK.