MARGAO: The ambulance provided to Carmona Panchayat in July 2018 has not been used at all since then. When the vehicle was delivered, it was parked at the panchayat building and now it is lying near the former government primary school.
Conscientious say the donating the ambulance to the panchayat is a total waste of public funds.
The ambulance was provided under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development fund as the then MP Shantaram Naik had sanctioned Rs 10.76 lakh to purchase it and local MLA Churchill Alemao handed it over to the Carmona panchayat.
The panchayat had decided to charge Rs 3 per km to anybody using the ambulance besides also arranging for the driver as the panchayat does not have a driver. However, the panchayat did not submit the takeover letter when it was handed over the ambulance.
Subsequently, in May 2019 the panchayat resolved to return the ambulance to the Collector as it was having constraints in operating maintaining the ambulance. In fact, the panchayat in reply to the Additional Collector said the operational cost of the ambulance was estimated at Rs 11.90 lakh and that it did not have that much money to spend.
The panchayat in fact had recommended that the ambulance be handed over to the Directorate of Health Services to operate it through the Regional Medical Dispensary operating in the village and the ambulance could also be kept in their premises.
The Collector South Ajit Roy in October 2019 referred the matter to the Under Secretary, Revenue, pointing out that the panchayat has not used the ambulance and not put in operation as per the MPLAD guidelines.
Carmona Sarpanch Allwyn Jorge said they have financial difficulty in operating the ambulance and that the ambulance service was available by dialing 108 in emergency and these ambulances are based in nearby places like Assolna and Benaulim.
“Running a separate ambulance is not feasible for the panchayat as the government does not provide any grants for such activity,” Allwyn said and pointed out that the panchayat would be held responsible for any untoward incident like death or accident while taking the patient.
As creepers were crawling over the chassis and even engine of the ambulance, Allwyn shifted it from the panchayat ghar to the old primary school premises where a special platform has been created with interlocking tiles.
“We are maintaining the ambulance by servicing it regularly and also running it at regular intervals to keep the engine functioning so that it is in a running condition when handed over to any other agency,” said Allwyn.
