Sachin GIDC, home to more than 2,250 units including weaving, textile ancillaries and textile dyeing and printing mills, in Surat (Gujarat), India is yet to get a ‘proper’ hospital to take care of the workers’ health.
People working in Sachin GIDC are dependent on an ill-equipped dispensary in the area. In case of emergency situation, unit owners have to rush their workers, injured or severely ill, to the Government or private hospitals located some 11 kilometres away from the GIDC.
The authorities are yet to build a hospital despite around 10,000 square metres of land allotted for the same in 1998 by the GIDC. Lives of more than 3.5 lakh people working in Sachin GIDC, which has annual turnover exceeding Rs. 8,000 crore, are at stake due to non-availability of hospital in the premise.
Last year, Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation gave an in-principle approval to the Sachin Industrial Cooperative Society Limited (SICSL) to develop a hospital with state-of-the-art infrastructure for the workers and other people employed in the GIDC at Sachin. However, the foundation running the dispensary is dilly-dallying on vacating the land.
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“There are around five industrialists in Sachin GIDC who are among the top 10 taxpayers in the city. They are ready to fund the hospital project, but we are waiting for the foundation to vacate the land, which it is not doing,” said Mahendra Ramoliya, president of Sachin Weavers’ Association to a leading English daily.
