A vehicle during the launch of the 108 ambulance service has Odisha government inscribed on it and one from the same service now has Rashtriya Ambulance Seva written on it. Telegraph pictures SUBRAT DAS

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 9: After much controversy, the state government has decided to give the Union health ministry its due credit for the ‘108’ ambulance service launched in March 2013 as part of a central project.

The ambulance service is predominantly an emergency response system, primarily designed to attend patients of critical care, trauma and accident victims. The scheme funded by the National Health Mission (NHM) was implemented in 28 states and the union territories.

According to official sources, 420 ambulances are engaged in the state. These vans were purchased under the National Rural Health Mission.

While the central share of expenditure was Rs 45.36 crore, the state government had spent Rs 44.93 crore.

The vehicles used to carry the logo of the state government and the message read — Odisha Zaroorikalin AmbuLance Seva (Odisha emergency ambulance service). Now, they have been repainted and the new message reads --- Rashtriya Ambulance Seva (national ambulance service).

“We have received a letter from the Centre urging us to brand the ambulances under National Ambulance Service. We have started changing the writings on the vans,” health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak told The Telegraph.

Incidentally, the common review mission team of the National Health Mission (NHM) is visiting the state today.

The state government, however, projected the ambulance service as its own initiative and the ruling BJD took full credit for it. It was even projected as one of the major achievements of the Naveen Patnaik government during the election campaigning. Huge hoardings with cut outs of Naveen flagging off an ambulance were displayed across the state. Full-page advertisements were also published in newspapers and telecast on TV channels.

The BJD website proudly announced that “the ambulance service, launched on March 5, 2013, on Biju babu’s birthday, had been a big success and is at par with some of the developed regions of the world”. It also figured in the BJD manifesto during the 2014 elections.

Opposition Congress had alleged that the Naveen-led BJD government had hijacked the Central-funded schemes during UPA-II. “We have been alleging that the BJD government is showing central schemes as its own. Now, the truth is out. Gradually, Naveen’s misdeeds will be exposed,” said Congress leader Narasingha Mishra.

Senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra said: “The state government is trying to fool the people showing all schemes as its own. Now, Naveen is caught.”

However, health minister Nayak refuted the allegations saying: “There is no question of hijacking Central schemes. We had not named the scheme after anybody. It was known as Odisha Medical Emergency Ambulance Service.”

He said that several states had branded this service as they wished. While the Chhattisgarh government had named it Mahatari Express, the service was called Samajwadi Seva in UP.

Similarly, the service was known as Swasthya Bahan Seva in Haryana and Mamata Bahan in Jharkhand, he said.