Rajasthan Ambulance Service Strike Intensifies on Day 3 as Wage Hike Denied

Jaipur, March 21: The ongoing state-wide strike of the Rajasthan government ambulance service employees intensified today on the third day following the failure of their talks on wage hike yesterday. "A meeting was held with the state government yesterday, but it proved futile. Employees did not accept 3 percent wage hike offered by the government. Their other demands too were not accepted," said president Virendra Singh of Rajasthan Emergency Ambulance Employees Union.

Singh claimed that almost all of the 1500 ambulances of various government hospital have gone off the road by today following the failure of the talks yesterday when the ambulance service employees in the state capital too joined the stir. The Rajasthan government's ambulance service employees have been shunning work since Monday to press for their 15-point demand, including the salary hike, which, they say, has been denied year after year for the last five years.

Singh elaborated that the government has 730 ambulances under '108 service' and 588 under '104 service,' named after the telephone numbers 108 and 104 allocated for hailing them, besides 200 other base ambulances operating for Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres.

"We have the support of all the employees and we will continue to protest," he added. The ambulance service employees resorted to the strike within days after the March 16 notification, which has declared the 108 emergency service, 104 Janani Express service and the base ambulance service as part of the essential services under the Rajasthan Essential Services Maintenance Act (RESMA), 1970. Singh said there are nearly 6,000 ambulance service employees in the state, who all have joined the strike. "There is a 10 percent increment clause in the contract. We have been raising the issue for long but to no avail," Singh said.