RAJPURA NEWS: What A Waste, ESI Complex Lies Deserted
RAJPURA: Crores were spent on building the 10-acre sprawling campus, now only a dispensary is functioning in the regional complex built by the Employees State Insurance (ESI) Corporation in Industrial Area here.
Thirty-six staff quarters, a 50-bed hospital, a house for the Senior Medical Officer, a laboratory – not to mention hospital equipment worth lakhs which was to be auctioned in January 2009 – are all lying abandoned after the staff were sent to the Gobindgarh regional centre of ESI in November 2008.
An ESI Corporation official said the complex was built for industrial employees in 1992 “but when the industrial sector of Punjab saw a drastic shift, the number of workers declined. It was decided to divert the manpower to Gobindgarh, now an industrial hub”.
There was no reply forth coming, however, on why the complex was abandoned.
Nearly 50 employee and senior officials, along with their families, residing in the staff quarters inside the complex were posted to Gobindgarh in November 2008.
Sources said there a proposal mooted by the PEPSU Township Board for re-utilizing the land by renovating the buildings and constructing additional infra structure, but it was turned down.
Last year, another attempt was made to utilize e complex for administrative functioning. “Even meeting were conducted but it too did not work out.”
SOURCE-HT