The Steering Committee for ESIC (Employees’ State Insurance Corporation) Medical College and Hospital at Rourkela, which has been fighting since last long for an ESIC medical college in the steel city on the basis of the number of IPs (insured persons), strongly condemned the laying of the foundation stone of such a project by Union labour Minister Oscar Fernades in Bhubaneswar near Khandagiri on Sunday ignoring the interest of a majority beneficiaries.
Steering Committee convener and senior advocate Muralidhar Parija told reporters here that in view of the genuineness of the demand for an ESIC (Employees’ State Insurance Corporation) medical college and hospital at Rourkela, the Union Minister should have refrained from laying the foundation in Bhubaneswar as the then President of India Prativa Patil had cancelled this project in 2012.
The agitation in western Odisha for an ESIC medical college and hospital would be intensified from March 15 which would be followed by an economic blockade, warned Parija. Sources also said the IPs (insured persons) in the region are planning not to give their ESI contributions from April 1, 2014 and in this regard a drive for signatures of 30.000 IPs has begun.