HC to state: Can same design be adopted for ambulances

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 26

On a petition for ending the practice of affixing photographs of politicians on ambulances, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked Punjab to examine whether uniform design and colour coding could be adopted.

The direction by Justice Rajan Gupta came on a petition filed by Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary against the Centre and another respondent. He was seeking the issuance of directions to the Centre and the other respondent to remove the photographs of political figures from the ambulances.

Appearing before the Bench, Chaudhary’s counsel claimed that the ambulances had been commissioned under the National Ambulance Scheme. The counsel argued that Punjab was required to use standard model and design of ambulance services provided by the Centre. He added that Punjab, however, made attempts to draw political mileage from the scheme funded by the Centre.

As the petition filed in 2013 came up for resumed hearing, Justice Gupta’s Bench was told that the photographs had been removed from the ambulances. The Bench was also told that the exercise of removing the photographs was done when the Assembly elections were announced.

Taking note of the assertion, Justice Gupta observed that the petition, in view of the developments, had been rendered infructuous and was dismissed as such. At the same time, the respondent-state would examine at the earliest whether uniform design and colour coding could be adopted, as required by Central Government for the National Ambulance Service.

Before parting with the case, Justice Gupta added: “If a decision to this effect is taken, there will be no local modification in the standard design approved by the Government of India vide its circular dated March 16, 2013.”

The development is significant as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), at one point of time, had claimed that the state had to do without Rs 23.8 crore of the Central grant for ambulances over three fiscals from 2012 after refusing to follow a prescribed uniform colour code of the National Rural Health Mission.