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108 Ambulance strike continues; govt offers talks
The employee’s union is sticking to its demand that the Aam Aadmi Party government in the state take back control of the service from the private company Ziqitza Health Care Limited operating the 325 ambulances
: The indefinite state-wide strike by Punjab’s 108 Ambulance Employees’ Association continued for the seventh consecutive day on Tuesday at the Ladhowal Toll Plaza, with the Punjab government offering the agitators a meeting with a sub-committee of four cabinet ministers on Wednesday.
The employee’s union is sticking to its demand that the Aam Aadmi Party government in the state take back control of the service from the private company Ziqitza Health Care Limited operating the 325 ambulances.
The protesters have stationed around 300 ambulances at the toll plaza.
Sub-divisional magistrate (Ludhiana west) Swati Tiwana said, “We have offered them a meeting with sub-committee of four cabinet ministers in Chandigarh on Wednesday. We have asked them to resume the service keeping the public inconvenience in mind. They said they will decide in their core committee meeting.”
The president of 108 ambulance employee’s union Manpreet Singh Nijjer said,”we are called for meeting with a committee of four cabinet ministers tomorrow. Our protest will continue till our demands are met.”
Vice president of the union Amandeep Singh said, “earlier today, the administration offered us table talk with government, but with condition to end the strike today itself and resume the service at the earliest.”
Earlier, the employees of 108 ambulance had a meeting with health minister Dr. Balbir Singh on January 13. After that, the Punjab government formed a four-member sub-committee of cabinet ministers to address the concerns of ambulance employees.
The sub-committee includes health minister Dr. Balbir Singh, finance minister Harpal Cheema, minister of rural development and panchayats Kuldeep Dhaliwal and Aman Arora, minister of housing and urban development.
The project head of 108 ambulance service in Punjab Manish Batra has claimed several times that the emergency service will be resumed soon but the company has failed to do so.
The company had even issued notice to protesters, but to no avail. The private company is also gearing up to hire new staff.
The ambulances are owned by the government, but they are being run by a private company on a contract. The Protesters claim that the private company is not providing fair wages and has not given them a pay hike in the last 10 years.
108 Ambulances were started in 2011 to provide free transportation to patients. Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) operates Emergency Response Services 108 Ambulance in the state through a private company Ziqitza Health Care Limited (ZHL) L-1 as per the new contract signed for five years from January 15, 2021.
Each ambulance is manned by a specially trained emergency medical technician (EMT) and driver. Around 1,400 such employees wanted an annual salary hike of ₹35,000 and regularisation of services under Punjab government.
