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108 ambulance service off road: Employees’ strike continues, operator to hire new staff
The indefinite strike by Punjab’s 108 Ambulance Employees’ Association continued for the sixth consecutive day on Monday at the Ladhowal toll plaza.
LUDHIANA The indefinite strike by Punjab’s 108 Ambulance Employees’ Association continued for the sixth consecutive day on Monday at the Ladhowal toll plaza.
There is no end to the deadlock as protesters continue sticking to their demands. The employees have stationed around 300 ambulances at the toll plaza since Thursday.
According to union members, they have received official assurance to fix a meeting with chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday (January 17). Meanwhile, the private company which operates the ambulance service, is gearing up to start emergency service with new employees.
Manish Batra, Punjab head of Ziqitza Healtcare Limited (ZHL), the company which operates the ambulance service said,” Few of the employees have agreed to continue working with us. We are also preparing to get new drivers. We will ask the administration to help us in getting the ambulances back from the protestors and resume the emergency service.”
Adding further, Batra said, “We will not let them paralyze emergency services anymore. People are suffering a lot due to this strike. We will restart the service at the earliest.” “We are trying to communicate with the employees and break the deadlock. We are ready to solve the issue with table talk,” added Manish Batra.
Vice-president of the ambulance employees’ association Amandeep Singh said, “The company doesn’t have trained staff to run this service. No one is ready to work with them at such low wages. We have earlier the company to hold deliberations on the issues.”
“We will discuss the issue with the government only. The health minister has already formed a committee of four members including the health minister, finance minister, Panchayat minister, and Housing & Urban Development minister,” added Amandeep Singh.
As a mark of respect to Congress member of Parliament (MP) Chaudhary Santokh Singh, who was cremated in Jalandhar on Sunday, protesting employees of the union deferred their plan of blocking National Highway-44 for two days. The employees went on strike, demanding the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government take back control from the company running the service.
On January 9, the association had given a 72-hour ultimatum to the state government and had gone on strike as their demands had not been met.
Meanwhile, patients and their attendants had a harrowing time amid the strike with many struggling to get an ambulance immediately. Many had to shell out charges way beyond the norms.
Satwant Singh, a relative of patient Guljinder Kaur, 75, a resident of Navneet Nagar, Jassian road said, “My mother is suffering from a breathing problem. She was under treatment at a charitable hospital. She was referred today to Civil Hospital, Ludhiana but looking at her condition she has been further referred to PGI.”
“We tried making several calls at 108 but we didn’t get an ambulance. We called a private ambulance with an oxygen facility paying ₹ 4500,” added Satwant.
