SHILLONG, MAY 17: Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Friday informed that she had approved the new tender committee for the 108 emergency services.
She said it was unfortunate that the tender floated for 108 emergency services did not go well last year.
“All these lacunas, which have resulted post tender in the last two tenders that were called should reoccur. We regret that it has happened but we should not regret and not take action,” the minister said.
Lyngdoh said, “Right now NHM is running it. Employees are quite satisfied but unfortunately NHM is not the correct forum to run the 108 emergency services.”
She said recently, there were two different incidents where our workers met with serious accidents; one of them is already certified as disabled.
“He has no benefit, post service benefits, no security, no insurance, this cannot go on like this. I feel very bad for the workers. In fact we are zeroing down on what we need to do for these two workers, who are now unable to go back to work. Had there been a functional company running the EMRI services, these workers would have benefitted,” Lyngdoh said. She said she is engaging with the government to see what will be the best thing to do for these kinds of individuals. “Worker rights are being violated as we are not a fully functional, no authorized agency to run the 108 services,” she added.