Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 18: Bari Brahmana Industries Association (BBIA) has alleged that Labour Department has failed to reimburse claims of ESI insured workers of the Industry and other allied sectors.
A meeting of BBIA was held here today under the presidentship of Lalit Mahajan in the presence of Tarun Singla- senior vice president, Ajay Langer- vice president, Viraaj Malhotra- general secretary, Rajesh Jain- secretary and Vivek Singhal- treasurer of BBIA and other members to discuss the issue in respect of non- release of payment of reimbursement claims by J&K Labour Department for the purchase of medicines by Industrial workers registered with ESIC due to non availability of the medicine in ESIC Hospital/Dispensaries.
It is pertinent to mention here that as per the data available with the Association, at present around 1.25 lakh IP’s registered in J&K with ESIC as on 31-3-2022 and with the addition of approx. Three family members of IP’s the total number of beneficiaries gone up to nearly 5 lakhs and accordingly an Annual Budget of Rs 12 crores has been allocated to the Employees Insurance Society constituted by State Govt but till date only Rs 1.80 crores has been given to Society during the current Financial Year due to non submission of Budgetary Provision by Society resulting huge pendency reported by the Industrial workers. There are no adequate medicines in the ESI Dispensaries working under the administrative control of J&K Labour Department.
It was further resolved that it is the responsibility of the ESI Hospital/ State run dispensaries to ensure the availability of requisite medicine prescribed by the concerned doctors and in case of non- availability of the same medicines in the ESI Hospital/ Dispensaries the same should be made available to the workers by the Hospital Administration/ Dispensaries by purchasing the same from the market & in case of non availability the claims should be settled immediately on the production of purchase bills by the Industrial workers.
BBIA said at present around one lakh Industrial workers and their families are registered with the ESIC Jammu which is providing best possible health care services under control of Regional Director Jammu and Medical Superintendent ESI Hospital Bari Brahmana which is over burdened with the shortage of doctors and Para Medical staff and it is the need of the hour to upgrade the present Hospital from 50 beds to 100 beds.
They requested Rehana Batul, Commissioner/Secretary Labour and Employment Department, AR War, Labour Commissioner and Regional Director, ESI Corporation, Jammu to intervene into the matter for the immediate release of pending payments for the reimbursement of pending claims of Industrial workers.
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