NHM maintains secrecy on Management of Ambulance Service in Odisha

NHM maintains secrecy on Management of  Ambulance  Service in Odisha

A High-level Inquiry  is required   into secret  deal  between officials  of NHM  and  Ziqitza Health  Care  limited

Dear  friends

In view  of widespread  allegation  by the  people in different districts   and  employees’ Union of  Ambulance  Service ( 108 and 102)  against  Ziqitza Health  Care  limited about  corruption and mismanagement  in Ambulance service ( Non-functional  of Ambulances, shortage  of staff , false Bill  etc.)  with support from  officials  of NHM, Odisha, RTI Application dt.10.2.20 was  filed in the  office of  National Health Mission, Odisha  seeking  some  information  including   the  following   important information.

·         Provide  list  of  pharmacists  engaged in Ambulance 108 and 102  who are  working  and left  along with  their qualification,  monthly  honorarium  which was  paid  each of them.  ( district-wise).

·         Provide details of various posts lying vacant for Ambulance 108 and 102 ( district-wise  and post-wise).

·         Provide  name  of  Monitoring  Officer  who have been engaged  by Govt. to monitor  this  work  in different  years . provide  date  of submission of  monitoring  report, if any  submitted  by them and copy  of Monitoring Report.

The  PIO  has denied  to provide  the  information on the  ground  of section 8 (1)(j) of the RTI Act ,  non-availability  of information and  with ill-motive  to keep  information secret.

As  per  available  information in public domain, NHM, Odisha , an implementing agency  of Govt. of Odisha  has entered  into  an agreement  with Ziqitza Health  Care  limited  to run  and  manage Odisha Emergency  Medical Ambulance Services (  512 EMAS)  and Referral transport  Services (  500 Janani Express) in all  30  districts. NHM  is the monitoring agency  to monitor  ambulance and see   in order  to provide  best  health service  to the  people.  The  Company Ziqitza Health  Care  limited   is accountable  to NHM, Odisha  for  all its  activities  as per  agreement. As  the  Chief Minister  speaks  of 5T  and Mo Sarkar, all  the  information about  Ambulance  service  must  be put  in public  domain  for  greater  transparency  in the   implementation of  this  project. The  Company  is duty-bound  to  provide  all the  information  as  and when  required  by NHM, Odisha.  As  per  information supplied  by the office of NHM, Odisha, a dedicated  Cell  is  functioning under supervision of Mission Director, NHM, Odisha  to monitor  Ambulance service  work.

But when  the  information about  list  of  Pharmacists  engaged  in Ambulance -108 and 102  is sought, the  office  of NHM, Odisha  denied  to supply  the said  information  under  section 8 (1) (j)  of the RTI Act  on the  ground of personal  information. It  is astonishing  how  name of the employees  are  personal  information.  In the website  of  Govt. of Odisha, we  found  name  of the Ministers , officers  and employees  with  their  contact  no.  are   web-hosted. When  the name  of Chief Minister, Ministers, officers  and  employees  including  peon  and Chouwkidar  is  in public domain, how   name of mere  pharmacists  can  not  be  disclosed by NHM, Odisha.  This  information is  required  to be  voluntarily  disclosed  under section 4 (1) (b)  of the RTI Act.

 On  another query  about details of  various  posts  lying  vacant  for ambulance  service,  the  PIO, office  of NHM, Odisha  has said that  the said  information is  not  available. It  is highly  astonishing  how  a Monitoring Authority with  a dedicated  Cell   does not  know  about  vacancy  of different  posts.  What  type  of monitoring  these  officers are  doing.  If the  said  information is not available, they must  ask the  Company  to provide  the same  as matter of transparency. Simply  denying  information under RTI Act  due  to non-availability  is crime . It is established that the allegation made   by the  Employees’ Union  about  huge vacancy  in the  post  of Pharmacist  and  other  employees  which  has brought  disaster  in Ambulance service   is   found  true  and based  on fact.  The  officers  of NHM, Odisha  are  hand in glove  with  the  Company  which is looting  us.

A High-level  inquiry  is  to be  conducted    to  investigate  the  functioning   and management  of  Ambulance  Service  and nexus  of officials of NHM, Odisha  and Ziqitza Health  Care  limited. The Ambulance  service  are  seen mismanaged  , the employees are  denied  proper  remuneration. Many of them are  retrenched  and the  Company  is looting  public money  bringing disaster  in health service.

I  present  herewith  number  of ambulances engaged  in different  districts  to monitor  whether  such number of  ambulance  is really  operating  or  not.

Sl. No.	District	Total No. of EMAS Ambulance	Total No. of  Referral transport Service ( Janani Express)
1	Angul	17	16
2	Balasore	27	29
3	Baragarh	18	15
4	Bhadrak	18	19
5	Bolangir	22	17
6	Boudh	8	5
7	Cuttack	26	33
8	Deogarh	4	3
9	Dhenkanal	15	15
10	Gajapati	7	6
11	Ganjam	35	44
12	Jagatsingh Pur	11	12
13	Jajpur	19	23
14	Jharsuguda	6	6
15	Kalahandi	21	17
16	Kandhamal	12	8
17	Kendrapara	15	15
18	Keonjhar	24	23
19	Khurda	23	28
20	Koraput	19	18
21	Malakangiri	10	8
22	Mayurbhanj	34	32
23	Nawarangpur	15	13
24	Nayagarh	13	10
25	Nuapara	9	7
26	Puri	20	21
27	Rayagada	15	12
28	Sambalpur	15	13
29	Sonepur	8	6
30	Sundargarh	26	26
	Total	512	500

Details of Amount  Released  to  Ziqitza Health  Care  limited   from January 2014  to December 2019

Period	Amount Released ( Rs. ) EMAS	Amount Released ( Rs. ) Referral transport
January  to March , 2014	11, 98,18,493.00	NIL
2014-15	54,55,50,570.00	7,37,70,825.00
2015-16	59,38,26,458.00	27,12,87,226.00
2016-17	61,19,28,140.00	40,68,12,233.00
2017-18	66,12,70,664.27	38,38,51,603.00
2018-19	72,81,51,104.57	31,65,88,962.00
2019-20 ( April 2019 to dec. 2019)	67,86,45,361.00	23,07,65,852.00

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 24.3.20