National Highway- 1 between Jammu and Srinagar, and the arteries like Batote-Kishtwar or Batote-Bhadarwah are all hilly roads carved out of sand rocks. These mountains readily respond to heavy rains and snowfall in loosening huge landslides which wash away chunks of asphalted road and can also prove fatal to human lives. Journey along these roads is usually fraught with danger. That is why at all tortuous turns and twists, signboards are set up by the Traffic Department cautioning the drivers to drive with utmost care. Despite all possible precautions, road accidents do happen along these routes and many precious lives are lost. Authorities are seized with this situation and steps are regularly taken to help smooth trafficking along the routes with no loss of life.
Notwithstanding all this, the traffic authorities including the police are eager that even in cases of exigency, the Government should be prepared to face a situation that might arise suddenly. One area towards which attention was drawn was to provide immediate medical support to the victims of a road accident along these routes. Experience has shown that lives of many people gravely injured in a road accident could have been saved if medical support was available in time. The question was how to manage carrying seriously injured people to hospitals either in the nearest place where medical attention was available or to Jammu city where facilities are available. In order to overcome this situation, Health Department suggested that Critical Care Ambulances be provided at critical points along the route which would be equipped with most of emergency gadgets and equipment needed for saving the life of a gravely injured person in a road accident. Nearly two years ago, 25 Critical Care Ambulances were purchased by the Department, 13 for Jammu region and 12 for Kashmir region. Just purchasing the ambulances was not enough. These had to be fabricated to meet the requirements. After completing requisite formalities, a Himachal-based company was given the contract of prefabricating the vehicles because we did not have such arrangement available in Jammu. But before the said company would launch prefabrication task, the contract was rescinded for the apparent reason that quotations of the company selected bore gross variation with the prevailing rates in the market. Thus the entire exercise done for more than a year was rendered futile. The purpose was not served. The file has been shuttling from table to table and department to department. Nobody is realising the loss of precious lives that is happening on the road.
The status of the case today is that after lot of file pushing and responding to the objections of Finance Department, authorities have agreed to approach Hindustan Latex Ltd (a Public Sector Undertaking of Government of India) and UNDP for prefabricating the ambulances. It has also been agreed that fabrication of vehicles under National Ambulance Code will be either done by reputed Central PSU, HLL or UNDP without inviting tenders. Obviously, if prefabrication is done strictly in accordance with the National Ambulance Code, we should have no worry whether the prefabricated vehicle will serve the purpose or not. The earlier decision of giving the contract to a Himachal company was discarded on the plea that its prefabrication pattern did not suite the requirement of the Transport Department or that prices quoted were exorbitant. One fails to understand how the bid of Himachal company was rejected much later and on what grounds? If its prefabrication pattern was not acceptable, it should never have been approved for selection.
Anyway, the point under discussion is that it is more than four months that the file is pending for nod from the cabinet. When that nod will come is not clear although the Health Ministry says it may take just days and not weeks. But even after obtaining the nod of the cabinet, a lot of time will be required for completing the work of prefabrication of all the 25 vehicles. The story of this case is a clear reflection on the administrative efficiency of the State which in any case is only disappointing. It is a matter of regret that the authorities concerned with the case have lost the humanistic aspect of the enterprise and remained mired in formalities and file pushing. Why did not anybody invoke the laws of accountability and delivery in this case? Just making laws and encaging them in sheets of paper means nothing. Will the cabinet pose a question like why so much of delay in finalising a decision on the case of ambulances?
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