Tilottama Mayor and Deputy Mayor donate their vehicles post ambulance shortage

RUPANDEHI: In Rupandehi’s Tilottama Municipality, the vehicles used by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor are now being used as ambulances.

As the number of coronavirus infected is increasing in the municipality, there is a lack of ambulances to take the infected to the hospitals for treatment. “It is not ethical for us to ride in a government vehicle bought from their taxes while the citizens are stuck at home because there are no ambulances. What will we do sitting in these vehicles when citizens are unable to receive treatment? So, we have let it be used as an ambulance,” said Mayor Basudev Ghimire. 

Chief Ghimire was using the Scorpio vehicle Lu 1 Jha 360 and Deputy Chief Jageshwari Devi Chaudhary was using Scorpio vehicle Lu 1 Jha 326. Both these vehicles will be used for the treatment of the general public in Tilottama from today. 

Ghimire informed that seats and oxygen cylinders are being managed in the vehicle. The health post at Shankarnagar Banbatika has been managed elsewhere and brought into operation as an isolation hospital with oxygen by the municipality.

The municipality in Tilottama is the most infected after the Butwal sub-metropolis of Rupandehi. There are 1,600 active infected people in Tilottama. At present, there are 40 isolation beds in the hospital, but it is not enough, and thus 20 beds are being added in the next few days.