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| Punjab emergency services plan delayed |
| Vijay C Roy / New Delhi/ Chandigarh Nov 07, 2009, 00:49 IST |
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The Punjab government’s ambitious plan to roll out free emergency services in the state in association with a Hyderabad-based emergency service provider, Emergency Management and Research Institute (now GVK EMRI), will get delayed due to some changes related to funding of the scheme under the National Rural Health Mission policy. The new amendment has put a burden of Rs 48 crore on the state exchequer. So the health department has written to finance department for its approval.
Earlier, GVK EMRI was to launch a comprehensive Emergency Response Services (ERS) covering medical, police and fire emergencies in the state by April 2009.
According to the changes, the Centre will only bear the initial cost of rolling out the services and only a part of the maintenance cost would be borne by the Centre for three years (then by the state). Under the earlier scheme, the entire funding, including initial cost for rolling out the services and maintenance cost was to be borne by the Centre.
Speaking to Business Standard, Punjab Health Secretary, Satish Chandra said, “ Initially, under the scheme of NRHM, the entire cost was to be borne by the Centre. But under the new amendments, the Centre will bear only the initial cost and part of the maintenance cost. In the first year, the Centre would bear 60 per cent of the maintenance cost (rest by the state government), second year 40 per cent, third year 20 per cent, and from the fourth year the entire maintenance cost would be borne by the state government.”
“The total maintenance cost would be to the tune of Rs 48 crore, so we have written to the finance department for its approval,” he added.
According to the MoU, a total of 240 ambulances equipped with all necessary life-saving appliances and medicines were expected to be rolled out in Punjab by December 2010.
The service is dire need for the state, as according to data, in Punjab 7,500 emergencies (related to health) occur per day and every year 1 lakh people die due to several emergency complications. It is expected that the service, once launched, will be panacea to the victims.
It is worth mentioning that the state government has signed an MoU with EMRI (now GVK EMRI) on January 1, 2009. Few days after signing of the MoU, the Satyam scam was unearthed. Since Satyam computers was a technology partner for EMRI services and the scheme was being supported by the Government of India, the department had written to the Centre stating the situation and put the project on hold.
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