KHADC staff to get medical allowance

By Our Reporter SHILLONG, Dec 13: If all goes as planned, the employees of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) will soon start receiving the benefits of medical allowance worth up to Rs 7 lakh each. The KHADC Executive Committee (EC) has decided to introduce medical allowance welfare scheme for Council staff by entering into an agreement with the State Bank of India (SBI). Informing this after the meeting of the Council EC here on Wednesday, the Chief Executive Member (CEM), Pyniaid Sing Syiem said that the scheme will benefit at least 800 employees of the Council. According to him, the staff of the Council have not been given medical allowance all these years. He recalled that there were many cases wherein the staff were facing huge financial burden in the event of any medical issue, especially when they had to be admitted in the hospital or even avail treatment from outside the state. Informing that they had detailed deliberations with the SBI on the welfare scheme of the employees, the CEM said they are looking to tie up with the bank for Special Group Medical Insurance Package, which will cover all the employees of the Council. “The premium of the package will be borne by the Council. The premium will be paid as per the current age of the employees. This plan will cover between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 7 lakh of medical allowance annually for each employee,” KHADC CEM said. He said that they have asked the SBI to empanel all the important hospitals within the state and even hospitals outside the state like CMC Vellore etc. “We hope that this step taken by the Executive Committee to introduce this welfare scheme will be a blessing for all the employees, especially when they have some health issue,” Syiem added.