ESMA enforced in Shimla as emergency services’ control room staff goes on strike

The ‘108 ambulances service’ was disrupted on Sunday as the control room staff refused to attend the emergency calls until their demand for better facilities and wages were met.

Even as 11 more people succumbed to Covid in Himachal on Sunday, the Shimla district administration was forced to enforce the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to prohibit emergency ambulance service employees from taking mass leave.

Representative Image/Reuters

The ‘108 ambulances service’ was disrupted on Sunday as the control room staff refused to attend the emergency calls until their demand for better facilities and wages were met.

Shimla deputy commissioner (DC) Aditya Negi on Sunday issued an order prohibiting mass leave, mass agitation or mass strike by the operating staff of EMRI, GVK-108 ambulances in Shimla district.

“GVK EMRI ambulances are being used to transport patients from sub-divisions to district hospitals or to Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC). Ambulances also carry the dead to cremation grounds,” said Negi.

Shimla chief medical officer Surekha Chopra had informed the district administration that ambulance service had been hit after the employees refused to attend emergency calls and the patients were forced to arrange transport to hospitals on their own.

GVK EMRI in public-private partnership (PPP) with the state government had launched the ‘108 emergency service’ on December 25, 2010. The 108 national ambulance service with a fleet of 200 ambulances is spread across different parts of the state.