New Delhi, Sept 1 (KNN) In line with the ongoing mayhem at the Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) hospital in Mohali, industry body Mohali Industries Association has written to the ESIC headquarters that the workers will stop depositing the insurance contributions from November till the authority takes charge and improve the facilities.

Talking to KNN, Jasbir Singh, Chairman of the Mohali industries Association (MIA) informed that the situation now is over it being in the worst state. Not only do the ESIC hospitals function in a pathetic manner, they have remained blind eyed towards the complaints and grievances of the poor workers as well.

Jasbir added that his association has submitted a memorandum to the ESIC Chandigarh as well as to the ESIC Head office in New Delhi giving ultimatum that in case the authority doesn’t take cognizance of the situation, they will terminate paying the insurance premiums to the ESIC.

He informed that as of now, every month his association alone contributes over 10 crore rupees to the corporation, yet the workers are never provided with the required medical facility.

There have been several cases where the poor insured worker had to suffer serious loss due to negligence/unavailability of the medical services at the ESIC hospitals. Also there are cases flooded at the court against the ESIC Mohali, of which many have been concluded declaring ESIC guilty of the charges levied against it.

At present there is an ongoing petition in the Punjab-Haryana High court in which Mohali Industries Association (MIA) filed a PIL against the Union of India and other respondents alleging that the amount is being collected from the poor industry workers as insurance premiums by the ESIC. But when it comes to providing health facilities to the workers, there are no proper facilities in place at the ESIC hospitals in the region.

Because of which the workers have to approach private hospitals for treatments and then wait for an uncertain duration of time to get their reimbursements.

Also earlier this week, in a news interview, the DHS ESIC Mohali Rajesh Sharma spoke of the poor infrastructure of the ESIC hospital building. He also warned that the structure is so weak that it is might collapse anytime, posing a threat to both the doctors as well as the patients.