By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The GVK EMRI ambulance service, 108 informed on Thursday that it was committed to address the calls received from any parts of the State.
Reacting to the ST news item 108 shirks responsibilities, dated March 21, relating to shirking of responsibility by 108 at Sabuda in Ri-Bhoi, the programme manager, GVK EMRI Meghalaya, Deepankar Choudhury said that in the last one year (January 2012 to March 2013) they had received 117 cases from the border areas and attended to 78 cases.
“For the specific location of Sabuda, the last case attended to was on July 26, 2012 (Case ID. 20120000171144)”, the manager said.
He reiterated that the EMRI caters to cases from Block-II area from four locations, Bhoirymbong, Umsning, Laskein and Nartiang.
“Some of the locations where cases were attended to are, Khanduli, Khliehumwang, Mawlasnai, Khyndewso, Mooshrot, Mukhroh, Sabuda, Saitsama, Umlaper and Umthlieh
among others”, he said.
According to the Manager, as per protocol, GVK EMRI necessitates confirmation of address from caller and if the caller confirms that they are calling from Assam, the call is duly transferred to the Assam Emergency Response Centre (ERC) immediately so as to enable them to cater to the emergency.
“In the event of the location being from Meghalaya, the case is handled by the Meghalaya team. Conversely if a call from Meghalaya lands at the Assam ERC it is immediately transferred to the Meghalaya ERC accordingly. This is because of the overlapping of network in border areas of Assam and Meghalaya”, Choudhury said.
According to the official, it is important to note that the onus of verifying the address ultimately lies with the callers themselves so as to enable assignment of the nearest available ambulance from Meghalaya or Assam based on the address given by the caller.
“However there are locations in Meghalaya which lie beyond the geo limits of 108 ambulances taking into consideration distances, travel time and road conditions which do not allow practical handling of cases”, Choudhury added.
Sabuda Rangbah Shnong B Sohtun had alleged on Wednesday that the 108 ambulance services did not cater to the people from villages under the disputed Block-II areas.
