The recent Naxal attack on an ambulance carrying CRPF personnel has affected the emergency van services in insurgency-hit Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.
The emergency ambulance services, 108 Sanjeevani and 102 Mahtari express, have stopped in some highly sensitive pockets of Bijapur, Dantewada, Sukma and Bastar districts due to security reasons since Saturday following the attack.
"We are forced to stop the operations of both 108 and 102 ambulance services due to Naxal firing and excessive Maoist disturbance in some sensitive pockets," state operation head of these ambulance services, Suresh Kamble told PTI. "However, we are continuously reviewing the situation and services will be retained as per the situation further to avoid inconvenience to people in the tribal-dominated region," he said.
The areas where ambulance operations have been halted are Darbha (Bastar), Kutru, Awapalli (Bijapur), Tongpal, Kuwakonda (Sukma) and others, he said. Around 47 '108 Sanjeevani' and 60 '102 Mahtari express' were operating in the Bastar region but due to current disturbances, services of about 10-12 vehicles were affected in the region, he said. However, the services of rest of the ambulances were unaffected and they were running smoothly, Kamble said.
'Sanjeevani Express' is an emergency ambulance service while 'Mahtari' express provides free transportation to pregnant women, and children below the age of one year. On Saturday, Naxals blew up an ambulance carrying CRPF personnel under Darbha police station limits killing five paramilitary personnel and two ambulance staff. The attack took place in Kamanar village when about 10 CRPF personnel were travelling in the ambulance. Five paramilitary personnel were also injured in the incident.
Later, the state government had announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the ambulance driver and paramedic technician killed in the attack, while Election Commission announced compensation of Rs 20 lakh for them. Besides, compensatory appointment will also be given to a family member of the deceased driver and the technician.
When asked about the security situation in the areas where ambulance operation was stopped, a senior police official said, "Security has always been maintained at high level in the entire Bastar region and there is as such no provision to provide separate security to the ambulances." "It's up to the ambulance authorities to run or not to run their vehicles in the region," he added.
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