Uttar Pradesh : Thousands of ambulance workers’ strike increased trouble, many patients died, relatives forced to bring patients on handcart

In the country’s largest state of Uttar Pradesh in terms of population, about 19000 employees of five thousand government ambulances have gone on strike. There are reports of death of many patients due to non-availability of ambulances. In many places of UP, the condition is such that people are bringing patients on handcarts and cots. In Lucknow, ambulance workers are gathering and protesting. Actually, about 4780 ambulances of entire UP have been closed due to the strike. So that people do not lose their lives, only 15 ambulances have been allowed to operate in each district, the rest of the workers have gone on strike. There are three types of ambulance service. An ambulance number 102 is different, 108 is different and an ALS service is different. The employees allege that the operation of the third type of service has been outsourced to some other company, which is doing layoffs and is demanding a bribe of twenty-twenty thousand to recruit old employees.

The agitating ambulance workers want them to be made government employees and the practice of contracting should be abolished. These employees say that the service of ambulance is the primary service and its employees should not be on wages. They say that we do not get any facility from the government right now. We are not even given the minimum pay scale fixed by the government. The government has announced a fund of Rs 50 lakh for the Corona Warriors, we are not named in it. In today’s date, if something happens to us, there is no guarantee of security for our family.

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav has targeted the Yogi Adityanath government, calling this situation shameful. He and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have tweeted on this issue. Priyanka wrote, ‘During the Corona period in UP, the government used to talk about showering flowers on ambulance workers. As soon as he raised his voice for his rights, the government is talking of raining logs on him. The government sacked more than 500 workers by imposing ASMA and the public is upset. God save the state from such a government.