New Delhi: Delhi government on Friday approved 'Good Samaritan Policy' under which monetary incentive of Rs 2,000 and appreciation certificate will be given to people who help road accident victims in the national capital.
Announcing the Cabinet's decision, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the scheme is intended to encourage people to take accident victims in emergency situation to hospitals so that someone's life could be saved.
"To encourage people to help accident victims, the Delhi government has approved "Good Samaritan Policy'.
"Under the scheme, people, who are helping road accident victims, will be rewarded with Rs 2,000 and appreciation certificate by the government," Sisodia told reporters in a press conference.
The government had mooted a proposal in August last year after a road accident victim in West Delhi's Subhash Nagar bled to death because no one had helped him.
The Deputy CM said that most of people are unwilling to help, mainly because they are scared they will land in trouble or be harassed.
In some cases, doctors also cite reasons behind the death of accident victim that if he or she could be admitted in hospital on time, his or her life could have been saved.
In 2015, 8085 accidents had taken place in the capital.
Under the same scheme, the AAP government had in April last year, had decided to provide basic life support training to all auto-rickshaw drivers in the city. The idea was to have help at hand in case of a road accident.
According to a Central government study, Mumbai has got the dubious distinction of the city with maximum road accidents in the country, while the number of deaths in road mishaps is highest in Delhi.
"Mumbai had the highest number of 23,468 number of road accidents during 2015 while Delhi had the highest number of 1,622 deaths due to road accidents," according to the 'Road Accidents in India' report unveiled in June last year by Road Transport and Highways Ministry.
