Here’s good news for the people living in the industrial belt of Eloor.

State Industries Minister Elamaram Karim had said that the administration will soon launch a pilot project of medical insurance to cover 3500 families in the selected nine wards of Eloor Grama Panchayat from April 1.

Under this scheme five members of each family will be given Rs 30,000 with an annual premium of Rs. 506 per person.

The minster also made it very clear that the offered reimbursements of the National Health Insurance Programme of the Rashriya Swasthya Bima Yojana amounting to Rs 30,000 can also be availed by members of each family.

It can be recalled here that Eloor is the largest industrial belt in Kerala and Green Peace International has rated the city as one of the toxic hotspots of the world.

There are over 250 industries of different kinds in this city. Prominent among them are: Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT), Travancore Cochin Chemicals, Indian Rare Earths, Hindustan Insecticides Limited (the world's largest manufacturer of DDT) and many others manufacturing a range of products like chemical-petrochemical products, pesticides and insecticides, rare earth elements, rubber processing chemicals, fertilizers, zinc/chromium compounds and leather products.