By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, May 17: The state government on Friday approved a new tender committee that is tasked with overseeing the appointment of a firm to operate the 108 ambulance services in Meghalaya.
“This time we are going to do the tender right and we are going to take on board all key departments in the tender committee to ensure that the new tender process does not face any lacuna,” Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said on Friday.
The state government had earlier cancelled the tendering process thrice owing to anomalies.
Earlier, experts and bidders had asked the government to evaluate the bids with a new high-powered committee comprising senior healthcare officials and domain experts instead of going for a fresh tender as it would be a waste of time.
Initially, the ambulance services in the state were operated by GVK EMRI and after a closure notice was issued to the firm in August 2022, the government has been trying to appoint a firm to operate the services. The National Health Mission is currently running the services.
Stating that while the NHM are running the 108 services currently and the employees are satisfied, she however said that NHM is not the correct forum or the platform to run the ambulance service.
She recalled that recently two workers met with a serious accident and one of them was certified as disabled but has been provided with no post service benefits, no security, and no insurance cover.
“This cannot go on and I feel for the workers. We are zeroing down on what needs to be done for these workers who are now unable to go back to work. Had there been a functional company running the EMRI services these workers would have been benefitted,” she said.