Ramdhuni Municipality-5 of Sunsari district has purchased its own ambulance for poor and needy locals, thus becoming the first ward unit to do so in the district.
The air-conditioned ambulance worth Rs. 13, 43,000 was purchased recently from Tata Group, informed Degraj Phuyal, the ward chairperson.
''This ambulance will be free for all pregnant women of the ward and fifty per cent discount of ongoing market rate would be available to all locals'', said Phuyal. He stressed the ambulance would be a great help in the municipality which neither has its own government hospital nor had any government-run ambulance service.
He said the ward office was compelled to purchase its own ambulance after ambulance was not readily available during the second wave of the pandemic. ''There are six ambulances of various organizations in our municipality but all of them are leased out to individual drivers,'' Phuyal said, ''We did not get ambulance when needed last year. It took one or two day to bring in either from Itahari or Inaruwa.''
Denizens of Ramdhuni Municipality, situated between Itahari and Inaruwa of Sunsari, must frequent either Dharan or Biratnagar ever for moderate medication. Together with the budget of ward office, 25 Tole Development Organization and dozens of individuals raised funds for the purchase. However, the purchasing process was delayed for eight months.
''We had filed our application for the exemption of custom duty, which led to the delay'', said chair Phuyal. He added, ''We have started to issue ambulance beneficiary card to our locals for hundred percent discount for pregnant women and fifty percent discount for others in hospital transportation.''
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