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Utilise ESIC surplus fund to vaccinate workers of unorganised sector: AITF

Updated: Apr 28, 2021 08:14:15am
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Utilise ESIC surplus fund to vaccinate workers of unorganised sector: AITF

New Delhi, Apr 28 (KNN) All Industries and Trade forum (AITF) has asked the central government to utilise 65, 808 crore surplus fund of ESIC for COVID vaccination and treatment of workers from different sectors of lndia.

In this regard, AITF, national President, Badish Jindal has written a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday where he mentioned that workers shall be allowed to get COVID treatment from any hospital.

''India is passing through the biggest ever economic crises, where around 1.25 billion people are badly affected due to this pandemic. 95 per cent factories or commercial establishments are badly affected due to this pandemic,'' Jindal said in the letter.

He further said that the vaccination is one of the treatments to protect people from this pandemic. Many states are sponsoring these vaccinations from state funds but many others are charging or planning to charge from the public for the same. Even, we requested that the hospital and medical bills of unorganized workers shall be covered under this scheme.

''The purpose of the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) scheme is to protect the health of the workers of this country. The ESIC Corporation is having a surplus of 65808 crores in their kitty which is increasing every year from 8000 crores to 10,000 crores due to the excess revenue side of the corporation. Even during 2020-21 the proposed income of ESIC is 9264 crores,'' he mentioned in the letter.

Although the workers of unorganized sector don't cover the ESIC scheme due to the format of the scheme but at some point of time they may have given the contribution during working in some organized sector. The benefit of exemption to small and unorganized shall not be a reason to remove the cover of health safety of workers, Jindal emphasised.

''Looking at the pandemic the rules shall be relaxed and employees shall be allowed to get the cashless benefit directly from any empanelled or non-empanelled hospital,'' he added.

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