Centre has small heart: CM on ambulance row

Badal’s photos on the 108 ambulance service has drawn the ire of the Centre which has said that this amounts to not conforming to the guidelines for this scheme. Punjab is set to lose Rs 3.5 crore per year if the pictures are not removed.

The chief minister said,“All policies of the Centre are named after Rajiv Gandhi,Indira Gandhi or Jawaharlal Nehru. We have not said we will not accept these schemes. Sonia Gandhi lays foundation stone of big government projects. However,when states try to do something the Centre raises objections. I do not want my pictures on ambulances. It shows the Centre has a small heart.”

Earlier also,Badal’s pictures on ambulances has fuelled controversies. Members of the Punjab unit of the Youth Congress had started a campaign to cover the pictures of Badal. They had also threatened to move court over the issue. During Assembly elections,directions had to be issued to cover the pictures as this amounted to violation of code of conduct.

Following the controversy over the funding,Punjab decided to run the ambulance service on its own. There are 240 ambulances under this service. In the first phase 154 ambulances were provided that received 20 percent funding from the Centre,while in the second phase 86 ambulances were provided with 40 per cent funding from the Centre.