Karnataka’s 108 ambulance staff have temporarily withdrawn their proposed strike after the Health Department assured them that their pending salaries would be released and gave officials time until October 21 to address their demands.
Employees working under the 108 Arogya Kavacha scheme had announced that they would stop reporting for duty from 10 pm on Wednesday. The proposed action included demands for salary revision and resolution of other employment-related issues. The withdrawal means the ambulance services will continue to operate for now.
The ambulance network is operated by GVK-EMRI under the 108 Arogya Kavacha programme. The service is used for emergency medical transportation and is therefore dependent on the availability of vehicles and staff across Karnataka.
With Health Minister U.T. Khader unavailable, department Principal Secretary Ritwik Ranjanam Pandey held a meeting with representatives of the ambulance employees. During the meeting, he directed the management of the operating agency to release two months of pending salaries to the workers immediately, according to the report by Prajavani.
The employees’ decision to suspend the strike followed what their union described as a positive response from the department. Paramashiva, vice-president of the Suvarna Karnataka Arogya Kavacha 108 Employees’ Association, said the principal secretary had assured them that their demands would be brought to the minister’s attention.
“We have received a positive response from the department principal secretary, who has said that the matter will be brought to the minister’s attention. Therefore, we have temporarily withdrawn the strike and will continue working as usual. We have received permission to hold a protest at Freedom Park on the 22nd, so we will wait until then,” Paramashiva said, according to the report.
The immediate dispute centres on delayed wages and salary revision, but the episode also places the operational continuity of a state emergency service on the agenda. The 108 programme relies on a contracted management agency while remaining closely linked to the public health system, making coordination between the department, the operator and frontline staff essential during labour disputes.
For residents, the temporary withdrawal avoids an immediate disruption to ambulance availability. However, the arrangement is not a final settlement. The employees have set October 21 as the deadline for action on their demands and plan to hold a protest at Bengaluru’s Freedom Park on October 22.
The Health Department’s next steps are the release of the two months of pending salaries, communication of the employees’ demands to the minister and further discussions before the proposed protest. Until then, the ambulance staff are expected to continue providing services under the 108 Arogya Kavacha scheme.
