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Bhubaneswar/Sambalpur: Clamping down on the agitating 108 ambulance workers, police arrested over 300 staff engaged in the emergency medical services under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) here late on Friday night.
Earlier, the ambulance personnel were on a dharna in front of the revenue divisional commissioner (RDC) office in Sambalpur from December 20 demanding removal of the private agency engaged in the operation of the ambulance service.
“We were hired by the private company four years ago. Since then, we have been exploited as we were paid much less. We are forced to work at wages of Rs 240 per day. Though we had approached the private agency officials to hike our salary, but all in vain,” said an ambulance staff, Pritibhas Mohanty.
Mohanty further alleged that the government is hand in glove with the private company. Together, they are trying to suppress our demand. The police didn’t even provide us food during our detention.
“We had the permission to sit on dharna. But the police picked us from the spot without any reason,” said another ambulance staff, Patitapawan Ghadei.
Meanwhile, emergency services are likely to be affected as the 108 ambulance staff have threatened to continue with agitation till their demands are not fulfilled by the government.
“As ESMA is bailable, we had offered the ambulance staff to avail the PR bond but they refused. Later, we forwarded them to court,” said Sambalpur Town Police Station IIC, Pradeep Kumar Sahu.
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