A good number of new projects get bogged down with delay and deferment and ultimately to the disadvantage of the people at large. Hurdles are created off and on and then files are tossed to a fro. The question is that when a project is initiated and voted, why a joint meeting of all concerned departments is not held to debate the implementation and execution part of the project. There should be a system according to which a date line has to be fixed beyond which no objections to the project will be entertained.
The case in point is of the purchase of Critical Care Ambulances by the Health Department for deployment along Jammu-Srinagar Highway. It is a highly appreciable scheme recommended by the committee appointed by the Government as it suggests preventive measures of road accidents along this vital highway. The aim has been to provide immediate medical aid in case there is a road accident. The practice at present is that in case of a road accident the victims are carried all the way to Jammu or Srinagar for urgent medical aid. By the time the victim is brought to the hospital, he or she may lose the last hope of surviving. To overcome this problem, the mobile ambulances equipped with emergency medical paraphernalia would be available at vulnerable points along the highway for use in cases of emergency. We can therefore understand the urgency in providing the vehicles. But on the ground the things have been made complicated to the extent that the scheme still hangs fire although it was move two years ago. Why did the Government order putting the contract in abeyance once the formalities were completed and a Himachal Pradesh firm was approved for providing 25 vehicles specially equipped with the medical paraphernalia? Even when the court quashed the abeyance order of the Government, other objections are raised. The Department has been receiving complaints and has now constituted a committee to consider the veracity of these complaints. This shows that everything is not right with the department and things are not moving in their natural course. The case has been made complicated and perhaps under some design. What one understands after going through the history of the case is that there are vested interests that would not let the matter proceed normally. They have an axe to grind and might be finding support within the official circles. There can be many doubts.
We would have appreciated if the Health Minister had taken initiative in ensuring quick and hassle free delivery of 25 such vehicles to the department and not let the officialdom make a mess of the entire case. It is totally unacceptable that a scheme undertaken to save precious lives from road accidents is not given its due importance and its final approval is left in limbo. The Health Minister should call the papers and decide the case on its merits. According to reports available the file has been shuttling between various offices and departments and delay in placing orders of supply with the firm whose tender has been approved is deliberately caused so that it may be eliminated for one or the other reason and a favoured firm is brought into play.
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