Assam to upgrade tea garden hospitals

As a relief to tea garden workers, the Assam government plans to upscale nearly 50 tea garden hospitals in a public private partnership model.

The project would be financed by the Central government under the National Rural Health Mission, said J B Ekka, additional secretary, department of health and family welfare and mission director, NRHM, government of Assam.

The state government would sign MoUs with the tea garden owners after the Tea Association submits a report identifying 50 odd tea gardens. However, the government would later carry out its own survey to verify the list, he said.

"We will initially restrict the facility to medium-performance hospitals in the tea gardens , and later implement the scheme to all the 750 such hospitals in the state," he said.

The government could invest maximum up to Rs 15 lakh in each of the hospitals, depending upon their requirement and size, he added.

According to Ekka, the idea behind such an initiative was to provide subsidised medical facilities to temporary tea garden workers. Once the scheme was implemented, nearly 5,000 temporary workers could be treated in the hospitals. At present, only 700-800 permanent workers could avail the facility, he informed.

The fund would help brining good doctors to the hospitals and upgrading infrastructure in the hospitals, said Ekka.