BENGALURU: The ‘108’ ambulance services have been affected because of the rift between the state government and GVK EMRI, the service provider.
The government stated that the poor service by GVK EMRI is the reason for non-payment of salaries for drivers of ambulances for three months. In all, 175 ambulances have gone off the road.
Officials from GVK EMRI said the government, instead of following the clauses in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2008, has created its own terms and conditions for clearance of payments. Prabhu Gowda, deputy director (108 ambulances), said the terms and conditions have been changed since all ambulances are not fully functional.
Funds are being released based on utilisation of ambulances. Meanwhile, the employees operating the ambulances said that they have not received their salaries for the past three months. They wrote to the government on June 27 stating that if their salaries are not paid by July 7, they will go on strike from the next day.
Gowda said payments are being made on conditional clauses and will be made by Saturday.