MoD allows hiring of additional medics at 51 clinics in Punjab, Haryana, HP and other states

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 27

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the hiring of additional contractual staff over and above the authorisation, the Ministry of Defence spokeperosn said on Tuesday morning.

The order will apply to 51 identified high pressure Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) polyclinics across the country to tide over the current Covid crisis.  Several ECHS are located across Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, home to a sizeable number of retired servicemen.

The contractual staff, including one each of medical officer, nursing assistant, pharmacist, driver and chowkidar for identified ECHS polyclinics, will be hired through station headquarters for night duty, beyond normal working hours, for a period of three months.

The high-pressure ECHS polyclinics indentified for the hiring are Hoshiarpur, Mohali, Chandigarh, Chandimandir, Ambala, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Meerut, Jammu, New Delhi (Lodhi Road), Jalandhar, Gurugram, Gurugram (Sohana Rd), Ghaziabad (Hindon), Pathankot, Ludhiana, Ropar, Tarn Taran/Patti, Yol Cantt, Delhi Cantt, Patiala, Palampur and Dehradun.

Other ECHS clinics on the list are at Kanpur, Allahabad, Jodhpur, Lucknow, Bengaluru (Urban), Kotputli, Secunderabad, Agra, Pune, Trivandrum, Kolkata, Danapur (Patna), Khadki (Pune), Bareilly, Kolhapur, South Pune (Lohegaon), Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, Guntur, Barrackpore, Chennai, Gorakhpur, Bhopal, Kochi, Vellore and Ranchi.

The move will ensure availability of immediate medical attention even during night hours to acute cases in these areas to the veterans and their dependents.