The functioning of GVKEMRI 108 ambulance services continued to suffer in the absence of fuel budget for a second consecutive day on Sunday.
The emergency ambulance service which serves a large number of people in all parts of the State is reeling under the shortage of budget. The State Government has earmarked an annual budget of Rs 22 crore for functioning of the 108 ambulance service. Out of the allotted budget the ambulance service has received only Rs 8.5 crore from the Government till date due to which it is finding it difficult to pay the pending fuel bills of petrol pump owners. Many pump owners have refused to give fuels to these ambulances in the absence of payments of pending bills.
The Head of GVKEMRI 108 ambulance service Manish Tinku told The Pioneer that on Sunday 27 ambulances were kept off the road. He said that he is in regular consultation with the Government officials in the matter and hoped that the budget would be released in a day or two. Tinku informed that five ambulances in Pithoragarh district, four in Tehri district, three each in Chamoli, Pauri and Dehradun districts remained halted on Sunday. Similarly, two ambulances in Champawat, Uttarkashi and Rudraprayag district and one in Udham Singh Nagar district was kept off the road on the day. The GVKEMRI 108 service has 139 ambulances which includes a boat ambulance (deployed in Tehri lake) in the State.
The ambulance service ' Khushiyon Ki Savari' which caters the mothers and newly born children as it drops them to their home is also suffering from lack of budget. Twenty one ambulances of its fleet are off the road in different parts of State. The annual budget for Khushiyon Ki Savari is Rs 8 crore out which it had received only half the amount though only three months are left in the financial year.