‘Good Samaritans’ Of Keonjhar Awarded

Keonjhar: Keonjhar Police on Wednesday felicitated 11 ‘real heroes’ for lending a helping hand in ‘golden times’, which is the time of urgent need.

The awardees are Dinabandhu Juanga, Rabindra Arukh, Kishore Behera, Kumari Sabita Baradi, Kanhei Naik, Ranjit Pradhan, Dayanidhi Dehury, Sudarsan Swain, Rahul Choudhery, Purna Chandra Panda and Nakar Dehury.

“These wonderful people with big hearts, helped us save 10 accident victims since April this year. They have been given an incentive of Rs 2000 and a certificate each,” said Keonjhar SP, J N Pankaj.

Earlier in an interaction with Odisha Bytes, the SP had said that 312 people were killed in road accidents in the district in 2017. “This year, from January to March, 103 people lost their lives. However, since April to June, the number came down to 67,” he added.

Pankaj congratulated the awardees and said he expects more people to come forward to help the accident victims. “We have assured the citizens that there will be no form of harassment from the police,” he added.

The Good Samaritan Policy was formulated in accordance with a 2014 ruling of the Supreme Court. It included the guidelines of Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to be followed by hospitals, police and other authorities.

The central government on Tuesday had agreed to the suggestions put forward by Transport Ministry to consider Good Samaritans for the National Award, Jeevan Raksha Padak.