Hyderabad, April 17: The emergency medical service – 108 – which contributed immensely to the victory of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in the 2009 general election appears to be on the way out.
According to highly placed sources, the Government has asked the service providers – the GVK Group – to scale down the activities to reduce the cost of maintenance.
The Government pays Rs 1.92 lakh per ambulance per month. The total number of ambulances is 752.
According to the Memorandum of Understanding, the service provider has to make about 24 lakh trips every year and the ambulance has to reach the accident spot or wherever there is an emergency within 23 to 25 minutes.
The service was very efficient till recently, earning popularity among the people.
Since few weeks, things are going wrong with the quality of the service being on the slide. The reports that the service would finally be withdrawn is being received with a pinch of salt.
However, Arogyasri Minister P Satyanarayana kicked the ball into the GVK’s court saying that it was not maintaining ambulances properly.
“The GVK Group does not appear to have a service motto.
When the service was reviewed in the presence of the Chief Minister last month it had come to our notice that the number of trips had fallen by 40 per cent,’’ he told ENS over telephone.
In 11 months the serviceprovider was able to make only 14 lakh trips and was claiming the same amount as per the MoU, the minister said. He alleged that to cover their failure the group is indulging in false propaganda that the Government had asked it to scale down activities.
Satyanarayana informed that the number of breakdowns was quite high though.
The MoU says that efforts should be made to ensure that not more than seven per cent vehicles break down. The Government was making payment to the GVK regularly every quarter.
“We will take a harsh look at the goings on at the review scheduled next month. If GVK does not mend its ways, the Government might even consider changing the service- provider,’’he said.
GVK EMRI CEO Venkat Changavalli said GVK is keen on continuing the service. “In fact, we are about to renew our contract with the State Government,’’ he said. He, however, added that due to administrative delays, the monthly fund given by the State Government to EMRI was held back by a week or so.
–Agencies