Badal rejects removing his photos on ambulances
Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has turned down the demand made by recently appointed Union minister Santosh Chaudhary to remove his photographs pasted on 108 emergency ambulances in the state provided under Central scheme.
Mr Badal said that Ms Santosh Chaudhary did not know that pasting or removal of photographs did not fall under her jurisdiction. He said that Ms Chaudhary should focus on policy matters rather than indulging in petty politics and that jealousy was not a good habit.
It is worth mentioning here that the Union minister who also belongs to Punjab had told the state government that they would have to remove the chief minister’s photographs from ambulances if it wanted to continue to avail itself of 20 per cent Central funding for this widely popular scheme.
The minister had stated that all states had been issued guidelines against putting politicians’ images on the ambulances deployed for public service with the help of Central funds under NRHM. These guidelines were issued on March 16, which inter-alia asked the states to adopt a universal display and colour scheme for the mobile medical units. The guidelines made it clear that if these were not adhered to, the Union government would be constrained to discontinue the financial support to them.
The ambulance service was launched in Punjab in 2009 under the NRHM, the state health department received 60 per cent Central funds in the first year, 40 per cent in the second year and 20 per cent thereafter. The EC had also asked for the removal of CM’s photograph from ambulances in the run-up to the Assembly poll held last year.
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