Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, May 10
The National spokesman of BJP and former union minister, Rajeev Pratap Rudy is in thick of controversy over a large number of ambulances lying covered in a skill development centre at Amnour near his native village in Saran district.
Rudy represents Saran in the Lok Sabha.
Former RJD MP and Jan Adhikar Party president Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav had visited Rudy’s village on Friday and released videos claiming the ambulances purchased under the MP local area development fund were lying idle and covered nicely with Tarpaulin sheets.
Videos and photographs of one of the ambulances marked with Rudy’s name transporting sand bags was also going viral.but not denied by Rudy so far. None of the leaders of the NDA including JDU and BJP have come to defend the national spokesman of the ruling party.
As the news of about 40 ambulances lying unused in MP’s campus spread, the MP himself responded to the charge and clarified he had purchased 65 ambulances under MP lad fund for use in 225 panchayats in his constituency. The MP LAD fund has been suspended since 2019. Village heads (mukhiyas) have returned the ambulances claiming no driver was available, hence they have been parked in the community centre. In front of the vehicles “MPLAD fund” was flashed.
Rudy said, “Oxygen cylinders and concentrators can be hoarded, how ambulances would be hoarded?” He claimed that he had written a letter to the district magistrate of Saran requesting him to arrange drivers.
District Magistrate Dr Nilesh Ramchandra Deor, an IAS officer of 2011 batch, said he was busy in the arrangement for the video conference of the chief minister on preparations for floods and could see the letter of the MP today. “I am trying to arrange drivers from home guards and district administration. There is no shortage of ambulances in the district and I have facilitated ambulances to relatives of some of my batchmates in the district too. Ambulances purchased by the MP are supplementing our efforts in movement of Corona patients.”
Rudy in his letter to the DM put the blame squarely on the government and said the administration failed in making arrangements for the drivers of the ambulance. He asked the DM to recruit drivers immediately to facilitate movement of the ambulance. He claimed there were many drivers lying idle in government departments in absence of vehicles. They should be used for driving ambulances.
However, the claim of non-availability of drivers was proved false soon. On February 17,2016, the Union Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari had inaugurated a skill development centre at Chapra, the parliamentary constituency of Rudy. It was aimed at training drivers only, according to the release issued by Gadkari then. Then Bihar deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi and Rudy were also present. Incidentally, Rudy was the skill development minister. There is no statement as to how many drivers were trained at Chapra in the last 54 months.
On Saturday noon, out of 40 ambulances, 20 were moved out of Rudy’s campus. His representative complained to the Saran police, supporters of Pappu Yadav had damaged some of the vehicles. Deputy SP of Marhaoura visited Rudy’s campus to inquire into the complaints.
Due to shortage of ambulances, many patients with Corona positive symptoms had to pay exorbitant charges to the drivers. On Thursday, Bihar government fixed charges of ambulances in different districts. On Saturday, two operators of ambulance agencies were arrested at Gandhi Maidan police station here following complaints of harassment to the patients and over charging. Two drivers have also been arrested under the disaster management(violation) Act.
