SAD, Cong battle over Badal’s photo
The emergency ambulance services 108, started by the Punjab government, is turning into a battle to take credit for the services between the Shriomani Akali Dal government and the Opposition Congress.
The controversy started when SAD government started carrying the pictures of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on the ambulances.
The Congress has taken strong exception to the pictures of the chief minister on the ambulances and wanted it to be removed. The SAD government, however, did not oblige to the Congress and carried on with the chief minister’s pictures on the ambulances as the these services are popular in the state. Punjab claims to have the highest number of people availing the benefit of this service in the country.
The Congress had totally opposite take on the issue as it is saying that ambulance services are the gift of the Union government to the people of the state and services are being carried out through the funds by the Union government under the National Rural Health Mission. They insist that as a result, the chief minister’s picture cannot be carried on the ambulances. Instead, the pictures of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should be there on the ambulances.
The issue snowballed into a major controversy between the state government and the Opposition Congress, when youth Congress workers forcibly tried to paste the posters of the Prime Minister on the ambulances, which already has the pictures of the chief minister. The state police has arrested 11 youth Congress activists, including state youth Congress president Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary, as they tried to paste the posters of the PM on the ambulances in Jallandhar.
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