‘108’ ambulance staff not paid salary for two months

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru:

The Karnataka Health Department has warned GVK-EMRI, which is responsible for the operation of 108 ambulance services in the state, over non-payment of salaries to ambulance employees. On Tuesday, Health and Family Welfare Commissioner Randeep D asked the operator to release the pending remuneration to the employees within the next two days.

“If the remuneration is not paid within the stipulated deadline, our department will not issue the satisfactory certificate to GVK, which is a requirement for them to participate in the tender process. We have provided them a notice for release of the remuneration and they have said they will make the payment within two days,” Randeep said.

The Health Commissioner has also warned the ambulance service operator of strict action if they fail to fulfill their promise. According to media reports, GVK has not paid the salaries of employees for two months. 108 ambulance personnel have warned that they will halt their services if the payment is not made by 8 pm on Thursday.

“If the dues are not paid within a span of three days, we will halt all the services. If the government decides to blacklist GVK, we are willing to provide free service for two months. We should be paid on time if we run the ambulance,” said Parama Shiva, state president of 108 Employees’ Union Karnataka, told media personnel. In September, GVK faced backlash after ambulance services were hit due to a software glitch. Dr K Sudhakar had said that the existing system was 15 years old, resulting in the glitch. He had also said that a tender had been floated for a new vendor to manage the service.