Dera Bassi, June 28 -- For the Dera Bassi civil hospital, an ambulance donation by Lions Club, Mohali, last November, had come as a lifesaver. Until then, the hospital, which is the main healthcare facility in the sub-division, had only one ambulance. But eight months on, the Maruti Omni ambulance has been returned unused. Reason: The health department failed to get the ambulance transferred in its name, thus rendering it ineligible for official use.

This, even as it was handed over to the hospital with much fanfare in the presence of Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann and governor Gulab Chand Kataria during a Jain Samagam event held in Mubarikpur.

Civil hospital senior medical officer (SMO) Dr Dharminder Singh, said, "It was the donor...