Rs 42cr recovered from ESI defaulters in a year

West Bengal has achieved great success in prosecuting errant employers and recovered a sum of Rs 42 crore from defaulting employers under the Employee State Insurance (ESI) Scheme in the last financial year (2007-08), Anandi Kumar Sahu, minister-in-charge of the labour department of the West Bengal government claimed here.

Sahu admitted that the accumulated unpaid amount from employers for the ESI scheme was much larger but promised suitable measures to locate defaulters, as also stringent follow-up action.

ESIC would set up at least one medical college per state, and West Bengal was the first state to come up with a proposal for this.

Details would be decided by the state health minister Surya Kanta Mishra soon.

"Workers who contribute regularly do not get the benefit of the scheme as the employers do not submit the money regularly. ESI could collect the money directly from the workers", warned Sahu.

The state also spent money on super specialty treatment facilities in the 13 ESI hospitals and tie-up facilities in the last fiscal.

A sum of nearly Rs 17 crore was spent on super specialty treatment for beneficiaries under the ESI scheme, said B K Sahu, additional commissioner & regional director, ESIC.

The ESI scheme currently covered around one crore insured persons (IP) and their families, adding up to 4 crore people in the country, said P C Chaturvedi, director general, ESI Corporation (ESIC).

It received applications from trade unions in various parts of West Bengal like Bankura and Murshidadbad and was conducting surveys to check if inclusion of these units under the scheme was a viable option.

Sponge iron units at Bankura and the NTPC township and adjoining areas in Farakka in Murshidabad district were under consideration, confirmed S K Das, principal secretary of the state labour department.

More than 70 doctors and 90-plus nurses would be recruited this year for the ESI hospitals in the state, including 24 specialist doctors, said Chaturvedi.