108 ambulances off the roads, patients suffer

The patients bore the brunt of the strike call given by the field staff of the 108 emergency ambulance service on Tuesday. Almost 80 percent of the ambulances of emergency 108 service and Khushiyon Ki Sawari remained off the road on the day, bringing the operation of the vital service to a grinding halt. There are 139 vehicles in the 108 emergency ambulance service while number of ambulances in Khushiyon Ki Sawari service is 95.

The agitating field workers of the GVK EMRI 108 Ambulance service took out a rally to the state secretariat. They charged the ambulance service for exploiting them. They further claimed that they have not been receiving salary over the past two months.

There are over 750 workers in the GVK EMRI emergency ambulance service. They are demanding the contract system in 108 -ambulance service be stopped immediately. They are further demanding the Haryana model under which the ambulances are operated by the National Health Mission (NHM) be implemented in Uttarakhand. Another demand they are raising is their duty hours be brought down from the present 12 hours to 8 hours a day.

When contacted, the state head of the GVK EMRI 108 Ambulance service, Manish Tinku said on Tuesday that the service would be normal after midnight. He further said that a budget of Rs 1.70 crore has been released for the ambulance service and the pending salary would soon be disbursed.

However, the real situation is said to be very grim. It is learnt that apart the pending salary for two months amounts to about Rs 2.5 crore the ambulance service owes about Rs 2.25 crore to the vendors. “The situation is so bad that the ambulance service is not able to pay for the fuel of the vehicles,” says an observer.