P L Kaul, director (public relations) ESIC, New Delhi, told Express Newsline on Tuesday that the committee had been apprised of the dilapidated condition of at least six ESI hospitals in the State for which the ESIC headquarter had decided to release Rs 25 lakh immediately. Repairs at all the 11 hospitals, 150 dispensaries and 125 other panel clinics would also be carried out soon, he added.

According to Kaul, an action plan to upgrade diagnostic facilities in Gujarat had also been chalked out and a sum of Rs 90 lakh was released recently. Diagnostic equipment such as X-ray units and ultra-sound machines would be either repaired or replaced in about a month or two, he added.

Kaul said even as the Gujarat regional director Vijay Kumbhare and Dr A J Shelat, from Indian Medical Association, the representative of the allopathy doctors in the national General Purposes Sub-Committee of the Employees State Insurance Corporation of employers, employees and medical professionals were showing keen interest, it had now been decided to ask the State government to pressurise mushrooming industries to be covered under Employees State Insurance I schemes.

``As on now, there are 14,000 employers who have insured over 7 lakh employees under the scheme while other beneficiaries' number is over 28 lakh at 14 centres in the State. "We plan to open five more centres in near future in recently set up industrial areas around Surat and Vadorara,'' he added.

The members of the visiting team include trade unionist Tarachand Viyogi, former Madhya Pradesh minister, Dr H H Gautam, from Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Mumbai, Ram Mohan Bidwatka, employers' representative, medical commissioner Mrs S Singh, deputy medical commissioner Dr D K Kapoor, additional commissioner S P S Khetal and Nitin Vohra, director, Employees State Insurance services, Gujarat.

The committee had visited several areas in Ahmedabad on Monday and would be covering north and south Gujarat on Wednesday before leaving for New Delhi on Thursday. The panel members were also scheduled to hold discussions with various authorities of the State government including Health Minister Ashok Bhatt.