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Times of India
14 April 2010
Ahmedabad, India

The Gujarat government has imposed Essential Service Maintenance Act (ESMA) in anticipation of a strike by employees of the 108 emergency ambulance services in the state.

The health and family welfare department issued the order on Tuesday. The 108 facility is run by GVK Emergency Management Research Institute(EMRI) in association with the state government.

The act is to provide for the maintenance of certain essential services in the state. Senior partner of GVK EMRI, Yashwant Prajapati said, “We received a notice from the union, which is not a registered body a week ago. It is about a possible strike.”

He added that if the strike takes place, it will greatly undermine the safety of human lives. “People now rely on the emergency ambulance service to reach hospitals quickly during medical emergencies. This union has been formed by disgruntled former employees of the ambulance services. Their services had been terminated earlier,” added Prajapati. The emergency medical services has a total of 2,300 employees.

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