The central trade unions including BJP-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh today rejected a proposal to provide an option to workers between Employees' State Insurance (ESI) scheme and health insurance offered by private companies.<br/><br/>The central trade unions strongly opposed the proposal during a tripartite consultation on the Employees' State Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2015, which was chaired by Labour Minister, Bandaru Dattatreya in New Delhi. <br/><br/>Talking to reporters, BMS Secretary Ajit Shripad Kulkarni said there is no explanation regarding as to why the amendment is required. He said there is no rationale behind this proposal. The meeting was attended by stakeholders including trade unions, employers representatives, officials of state governments and different central ministries. <br/><br/>The present bill was drafted after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had made an announcement regarding providing option to formal sector workers to choose between ESI and other such products available in the market in this year's Budget speech. At present, ESI scheme has around two crore subscribers and it covers nearly eight crore beneficiaries under its health insurance.