Gangwar lays foundation stone of 100-bed ESIC hospital in J&K

Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar on Monday laid foundation stone of a 100-bed hospital of Employees State Insurance Corporation ESIC at Ompura, Budgam in Jammu and Kashmir. Best quality healthcare facilities will be provided to the ESIC beneficiaries of primarily Srinagar, Budgam, Pulwama, Shopian, Anantnag and Kulgam districts of Kashmir division through this hospital, the statement added.

Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar on Monday laid foundation stone of a 100-bed hospital of Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) at Ompura, Budgam in Jammu and Kashmir. According to a labour ministry statement, the four-storied hospital will be built over an area of five acres and will provide services covering 23 specialties and three super specialties. J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha was the chief guest at the foundation stone laying ceremony, the statement said.

The facility will come up at an expenditure of Rs 160 crore and is expected to be completed in the next one-and-a-half years. Besides covering registered Insured Persons (IPs), the healthcare facilities in this ESIC hospital will also be available to the general population. Speaking on the occasion, Gangwar said ESIC has been working for the past 66 years and has a presence in over 80 percent of the districts of the country. He said Srinagar has around 20,000 IPs and they deserve the best healthcare as is available to their counterparts in other regions of the country.

He added that no citizen should be bereft of the benefits of the social security coverage. Gangwar also highlighted the strategic role played by ESIC hospitals in fighting the current COVID-19 crisis. The Lieutenant Governor thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gangwar for their efforts and expressed hope that the population of J&K will benefit immensely from the facilities that will be made available at this hospital.

Labour Secretary Apurva Chandra said ESIC has over 3 crore direct beneficiaries and when the number of their dependents is also taken into consideration, the total touches around 13.5 crore, which is almost 10 percent of the total population of India. Lauding the efforts of the Labour Department, J&K, Chandra said these efforts will bear fruits when residents of Kashmir will get access to best healthcare facilities with the coming up of this hospital. Best quality healthcare facilities will be provided to the ESIC beneficiaries of primarily Srinagar, Budgam, Pulwama, Shopian, Anantnag and Kulgam districts of Kashmir division through this hospital, the statement added.