Telangana in dire need of more 108 ambulances

Hyderabad: There are not enough GVK-Emergency Management Research Institute (EMRI) run ambulances in the state. These ambulances, which respond to the emergency number 108, are distributed on the basis of population or mandals. As per the rules, there should be one ambulance for every 1.5 lakh population, or per mandal.

P Ashok, Telangana State 108 Employees Union president said, “There's definitely deficiency in the number of ambulances. At least 150-180 ambulance should be on the roads to service the people of Telangana. The data shows there are around 335 ambulances of which 310 should be on the road and another 27 should be back-ups for vehicles being repaired. Of the 310 ambulances, 210 are very old and only 150 ambulances are new.”

There are many other issues employees of this emergency service complain about. Many of the employees working in 108 are contract employees who work for about 12 hours for a minimum wage of Rs 9,000 per month.

Salaries of the staff are in arrears for two to three months for the employees including 1,550 field employees.

The government should have contracted GVK to run the service only after ascertaining that the company is capable of paying one month's salary to employees if the money from the government came late. Labour laws require an employee to be paid on or before the 10th of every month.

“The 108 ambulances run by Satyam used to give a week off for every three days of work. After GVK took over, the week off was changed to after every four days and at present it is after seven days. As per law, employees should work only for 48 hours a week but we work 72 hours a week,” Mr Ashok told this newspaper.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle on condition of anonymity, an employee said the ambulances had a speed governor that did not allow them to drive at more than 70 km per hour. But they were told verbally that they should drive at 60 km per hour.

“If we drive at more than 60 km/hr they will ask for an explanation and remove us from the job. We face a lot of problems from patients who want to be rushed to hospital as early as possible,” the employee complained.

There is disgruntlement on other fronts too. The employee said that Rs 1,000 would always be kept with the ambulance staff in case of small repairs.