Kharge Attacks Yeddy for Skipping Major Central Govt Functions in State
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Nov 13: Union labour and employment minister M Mallikarjun Kharge has lambasted chief minister B S Yeddyurappa for skipping major functions of the Central government held in the state.
''The presence of the chief minister in the Central government functions sends a strong message to the state and Central Government and the respective employees. It will help in expediting decision making process on the projects and ensure better coordination,” he said addressing a function after inaugurating the Employees state Insurance Corporation (ESIC) model hospital at Rajajinagar in the city on Saturday.
Rajya Sabha deputy chairman K Rahman Khan presided over the function.
The state government was represented by labour minister B N Bachegowda, and law, justice, human rights and urban development minister S Suresh Kumar, Congress opposition leader in the Council Motamma, Chandra Kant Khaire, MP and member ESIC, N L Narendra Babu, MLA, Prabhat C Chaturvedi, secretary, union ministry of labour and employment, Dr C S Kedar, director general ESIC, Ramesh Zalki, secretary, labour department, and BBMP mayor S K Nataraj and BBMP opposition leader M Nagaraj were the chief guests.
Kharge sarcastically remarked that the chief minister has sufficient time to distribute sarees and blouses worth Rs 80 or Rs 90 but he has no time to attend a Rs 1,000 crore (value of the centrally-sponsored projects) function.
''The chief minister has not attended a few programmes organised by the Centre in the recent past,” Kharge said pointing out that he was deeply pained by the attitude of Yeddyurappa.
Reminding the chief minister that he and other Central ministers from the state and from other states had attended various functions organized by the state Government including the Global Investors’ Meet, Kharge said it was deplorable that the chief minister chose not to attend an important functions aimed at the working classes.
The chief minister has been distributing sarees to beneficiaries of Bhagyalakshmi scheme in different districts in last few days and the people will draw appropriate lessons from the attitude displayed by the head of the government.
''If chief minister comes to such functions, we and officials of the Centre get encouragement. It helps in quick decision-taking. I have nothing personal against the chief minister,” he said pointing out that he was not expecting the chief minister to attend all come to small functions.
''But for major functions pertaining to projects worth Rs 100 crore, the chief minister should make time and has to come,” Kharge said.
The union minister pointed out that Yeddyurappa did not attend a programme held in Gulbarga for laying the foundation stone for a Central University and Central medical college a few months ago.
He said the Employees’ state Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has sanctioned Rs 1600 crore projects to the state for renovation and upgradation of ESIC hospitals, opening of medical and nursing colleges.
The first phase of the modernisation work of the hospital at Rajajinagar in the city had been completed in a two-year period. The second phase would be completed in a year. This ISO certified ESIC Model Hospital will have a capacity of 500 beds.
Upgraded wards for different diseases, 12 operation theatres with modern faicilities would be made available for different kinds of surgeries within the hospital, he said explaining that the entire hospital complex will be having state-of-the-art equipments and comparable to any private corporate hospitals in the country.
Wards for orthopedic, pediatrics, burns and plastic surgery, urology and OBG have started functioning. Diagnostic facilities such as CT scan/MRI, X-ray, ultrasound, pathology, microbiology and biochemistry have also been started. Besides this, 12 operation theatres with modern facilities will be made available for different kinds of surgeries within the hospital. This new building is centrally air-conditioned with latest medical equipments.
The ESI Corporation is committed to work for the welfare of workers and improvement in their quality of life and for providing all possible social security to them. The ESI Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (PGIMSR) at this ESIC Model Hospital has also come up after getting the permission from the Medical Council of India. Professors, associate professors and assistant professors have been already appointed in eight specialties. This Hospital will also have a full-fledged Medical College in near future for imparting medical education at the graduation level.
With the passage of time, Corporation now owns a huge infrastructure and provides benefit through 146 hospitals, 42 hospitals annexes, 1388 ESI dispensaries, 1678 panel clinics, 797 branch/pay offices and 52 regional/sub-regional/divisional offices.