Odisha: Rs 5K Reward For Good Samaritans Saving Accident Victim’s Life

Bhubaneswar: Anyone who saves the life of a road accident victim by rushing him/her to hospital within the “golden hour” will get a cash reward of ₹5,000.

After the Centre issued guidelines in this regard earlier this month,  Odisha government has started working on the modalities to implement the scheme and reduce fatalities.

As per the new scheme, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will provide an assistance of Rs 5,000 to each Good Samaritan per incident for saving the life of a victim of a fatal accident involving a motor vehicle by extending immediate help and rushing to hospital/trauma care centre within the golden hour.

The Good Samaritan reward of Rs 2,000 announced which Odisha government had earlier launched will now be stopped after the Central scheme came into effect from October 15.

The MoRTH will provide Rs 5 lakh as initial grant to the State Transport department for making payment to the Good Samaritans.

Meanwhile, the Transport department has directed districts to constitute an appraisal committee led by Collector and SP/DCP, CDMO and RTO as members to facilitate selection and recommend Good Samaritans for the reward.

However, there’s a catch. One Good Samaritan can be awarded a maximum five times in a year.

The government hopes that the scheme will motivate people to help road accident victims in emergency and save lives.

There will also be 10 national-level awards for the most worthy Good Samaritans, who will be selected from all those who have been awarded during the whole year and they would be given an award of Rs 1 lakh.