New Delhi
Generally, people who cause accidents in road accidents often run away from the spot. And the people present at the spot shy away from helping the accident victim only because they themselves do not get into any trouble. Every minute is precious for the accident victim. Keeping this in mind, a statement has come out from Nitin Gadkari.
Why don’t people help?
It has been seen in many cases that the police is unable to find any witness in a hit and run case. In such a situation, the person who has called the police and informed about the incident, the police tries to make him a witness. Instead of helping the injured in a road accident, people avoid calling the police or even helping to avoid getting into legal trouble. On many occasions, the police also try to force the person who helps to become a witness by threatening to implicate him in the opposite case.
Prize money will increase
In fact, Nitin Gadkari has said that his ministry is now increasing the reward given to people who take road accident victims to hospital. He said in his statement that this reward amount will now be increased 5 times. That means the amount of Rs 5000 which was earlier available will now become Rs 25000.
Orders given to Transport Ministry
While talking to Anupam Kher during a TV programme, Gadkari said that the current amount is very less for the person who has taken the accident victim to the hospital. Therefore, he has ordered the Road Transport Ministry to increase this amount.
Under the present scheme, the person who takes road accident victims to the hospital is given a certificate of recognition along with prize money. There is a multi-level verification process to ensure that the prize money goes to genuine individuals. Apart from this, the policy of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways states that only those who come forward to help victims of a fatal accident are eligible to receive incentive amount and certificate. There is no data available in the public domain as to how many people have so far helped in saving the lives of road accident victims and how many people have been awarded reward money.
A few days ago, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had announced the ‘Cashless Treatment’ scheme, under which the government will bear the expenses of up to Rs 1.5 lakh for the 7-day treatment of road accident victims. Gadkari said that if the police receives information about the accident within 24 hours, the government will bear the expenses of the treatment of the victim. The Union Minister had also announced an ex-gratia amount of Rs 2 lakh for the families of deceased victims in hit-and-run cases.
He also said that road safety is the top priority issue of the government. Citing worrying figures, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had said that in 2024, about 1.80 lakh people lost their lives in road accidents in different parts of the country. Of these, 30,000 deaths occurred due to not wearing helmets. He said- The second serious thing is that 66% of the accidents involved people aged between 18 to 34 years. Gadkari also highlighted the death of 10,000 children in road accidents due to inadequate arrangements at entry and exit points near schools and colleges.
The policy came in the year 2021
The Government of India had introduced reward money from October 2021 to encourage people to help road accident victims. Under this scheme, certificates are issued to those who help the needy in road accidents so that it can be ensured that the money reaches the right person only.