Mangalore: The labour rights activist and the founder-president of the Akhila Bharata Karmika Sangha Sudatta Jain Shirtady began an “indefinite” hunger strike on Wednesday September 24 demanding the handing over of the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) hospital in the city to the Union government.

In his demand, he said, “I will not have a morsel of food until the State government categorically says they will resolve the issues of ESI workers on the coast.”

Prime among the organizations nine-point demands is to set up a hospital for beedi workers in the district and to hand over the Mangaore ESI Hospital to the Union government to avail more funds and better schemes.

Other demands included more testing facilities and dispensaries under the ESI scheme; scrapping of the contract labour system in government departments; raising the eligibility limit for ESI scheme to Rs. 25,000 per month for workers in the private sector; construction of an ESI Hospital in Udupi; and filling up vacant positions in labour department.