Mangaluru : Ivan D’Souza, MLC, on Wednesday urged the government to open a super-speciality hospital for beedi workers in the port city.

Addressing the media, he said that Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district had about four lakh beedi workers. The government should grant at least 100 acres in the district for constructing a housing colony for beedi workers. It should build at least 5,000 houses for them, he said.

Mr. D’Souza said that Mysuru had about 8,000 to 10,000 beedi workers. But the government had built a hospital and colony for them when Aziz Seth was Minister. The the government should provide a minimum of Rs. 2,000 per month as pension to each worker, and double the scholarship amount for their children.

The government recently announced in the Legislative Council that a State-level committee would be formed under the supervision of the Labour Department to study the problems of beedi workers.