The Hindu : New Delhi News : ‘Bring CATS ambulances back under Govt. control’

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Thursday, Feb 21, 2008
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New Delhi

‘Bring CATS ambulances back under Govt. control’

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: A delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs complained to Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna that though the Delhi Government had announced in its approved Plan for 2008-09 that it would be adding 140 new ambulances to the Centralised Accident and Trauma Services’ fleet, it has now arbitrarily privatised the service by handing it over to a Hyderabad-based firm.

Led by Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Jagdish Mukhi, the delegation handed over a memorandum to Mr. Khanna stating that the Delhi Government should be directed to continue running the CATS ambulances on its own rather than transferring them to a private firm. And if the service is to be privatised, the memorandum stated, it should be done in a transparent manner through open tendering.

Prof. Mukhi said the Lieutenant-Governor had assured that CATS ambulance services would not be handed over to a private institution without adherence to a proper procedure. The BJP leader said the issue was of great importance for the people as CATS ambulances had saved the lives of over 3 lakh people in the past 17 years. He also questioned the logic of handing over such a crucial service to a company which has only two years’ experience in the field and not a great track record. With CATS also providing an ambulance cover during important government and public functions, which are attended by VVIPs as well, Prof. Mukhi said handing over the service to the private sector would also compromise on the security aspect.

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