The 108 emergency health workers of the state have expressed concern that the three bidders selected by the government to take over the 108 emergency ambulance services have a history of black remarks against them.
“One of them is the Medulance (company) which has a record of not being able to pay its employees during Covid 19,” 108 emergency service president Roypar Raswai alleged.
He also said that the Global Health Service, which has tied up with UKSSA that runs the 108 and 102 emergency service in Delhi, reportedly could not pay salaries to its workers that led to protest in 2018.
Raswai said that the UKSSA could not pay its employees their salaries since the government did not provide them with the required funds because the former did not provide the required services as per the conditions in the agreement.
He also informed that the third bidder shortlisted by the government – Ziqitza Health Care Ltd is under probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for running the services in Rajasthan.
“Seeing the records of the three is bad. Now how the state government has shortlisted them with such records? We are concerned if the government makes a wrong decision by handing over the service to one of these companies” the 108 emergency services union president said.
The union also said that the state government should not compromise on the issue of emergency health services by handing over to companies which have black remarks.
Meanwhile, Raswai also said that the government should first enhance the salaries of the 108 emergency service employees before deciding on the increment.
According to him, a few categories of 108 employees like the Emergency Response Officers and the Pilots are receiving Rs. 17000 salaries per month as of now.
Recently Health Minister Amapreen Lyngdoh informed that the 108 workers must also receive a yearly rise of 7 per cent in their salaries as per the bid document by all the companies submitting their bid.
He also said that the 108 emergency workers want the government to run the service.
According to Raswai ever since National Health Mission is handling the service, it is doing a good job in the interim, even as he added that the employees would not oppose handing it over to private companies, since the Health department has informed that it would not be able to do so in the long run.
“We will leave it to the wisdom of the government on how to run and to whom to hand it over for the smooth functioning of the 108 emergency services,” the president said.
It may be mentioned that the contract of the GVK EMRI ended on June 30, 2022, after the state government did not renew their services.
GVK EMRI has served the citizens of Meghalaya for more than 13 years since February 2009.
